The Splice Girl
by Genessis Mendez
Summary: What would have happened if Emma didn't turn out to be like her mother and Sam didn't kill her?
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Supernatural, it all belongs to CW and Eric Kripke. **

The Splice Girl

"You haven't killed anybody yet, Em. Walk away." Dean almost pleaded. He really didn't want to pull the trigger on his daughter, not an innocent child. Because even though she'd been brainwashed, Emma was still his daughter. He couldn't kill her. "Right now, I won't hurt you."

Dean her hesitate for a moment. _Please, Em, don't._ He prayed in his mind.

"I can't" Emma said, but her hand was shaking. "I don't have a choice." Even as she said it, Dean knew he was getting through to her. Her words lacked the conviction they once held, and were instead fearful. God, what had those bitches said to her to have her so scared?

"Yes, you do." He lowered his gun just as the door flew open, drawing Emma's attention towards the loud crash. It was Sam, his gun pointed at Emma.

Dean saw the determination in his brother's eyes and knew what he was planning. Without realizing it he took some steps closer to his daughter, the instinct to protect her was like second nature to him even if he'd just met her and she'd threatened to kill him. It wasn't her fault.

Emma turned back towards Dean, fear clear in her eyes and the knife cluttered to the floor. She was just a kid, and it was then that Dean realized that his daughter wasn't a monster. No, Em had just been brainwashed but she didn't have it in hr to hurt anyone. Innocence still flashed in her eyes.

Without thinking about it, Dean launched himself towards his daughter to put her out of harm's way just as Sam pulled the trigger and they landed on the floor with a thud. Quickly, Dean pointed his own gun at Sam and kept his daughter behind him. She hid behind his body, clutching at his shirt.

"Don't shoot, Sam." Dean said, panting.

Sam gave him a look of disbelief but didn't lower his gun. "What? Are you crazy? She's here to kill you, Dean!"

"I know. But she didn't do it." Dean tried using reason with his brother, it almost always worked. "She's my daughter, Sammy. She's family." Even as he said those words he knew that Sam wasn't buying any of it and he didn't blame him.

"I'm sorry." Emma whispered. "They told me I had to do it but I didn't want to. I swear. I just couldn't do it."

Dean's jaw tightened at the sound of those words. He pretty much wanted to kill those bitches now for doing that to his kid. He knew what it was like to be manipulated into doing something you didn't want to do and to know that at such young age Em had already experienced that made him angry.

Sam, on the other hand, wasn't moved at all. "I don't believe a word she's saying. Dean, she's a monster."

"I'm not a monster!" Emma sobbed from behind Dean. "I'm not a monster." She repeated and whether or not she was trying to convince herself or Sam, Dean wasn't sure. But he knew she wasn't a monster.

"Calm down, people. Nobody's gonna kill anybody."

Sam let out a bitter laugh and finally lowered his gun. He ran a hand through his hair and began pacing the room. Dean lowered his gun and stood up, helping Em do the same. He wasn't about to trust Sam on not hurting Emma so he kept her hidden behind him.

"Dean, do you have any idea how crazy this is?" Sam stopped pacing and sat on the bed. His entire demeanor had changed. He no longer looked like he was about to kill anyone, but rather worried and tired. Like he couldn't take anything anymore.

To be honest, Dean felt the same. "Yes, Sam. I have an idea. I just found out I have a kid, not to mention the fact that you almost killed her." He answered sarcastically. It was lame and without any malicious intent behind it and, thankfully, Sam didn't take it at heart.

"We have to go, Sam." Dean suggested, letting some of his tension go away. "Those bi—amazons could looking for us any minute."

Almost instantly, Sam sprang into action. This gave the younger man something to concentrate on besides the fact that his brother was defending one of the Amazonian's spawn. "The local detective was one of them." Sam informed him. "She tried to kill me just as I was coming out of the professor's office and my cell broke during the fight. That's why I couldn't call you on time to warn you about… her."

Emma made a funny noise behind Dean. She still hadn't moved away from him, probably still afraid of Sam even though he wasn't pointing a gun at her anymore. "Is she… dead?"

Sam clenched his jaw. "Yes."

This bit of info did make Dean feel better. But he had a feeling that that didn't mean those bitches wouldn't come after them. "Em, you're coming with us."

"Yes." She barely whispered. If she was honest with herself, she was afraid of what Sam would do to her if given the chance. Em was more than capable of fighting him, they taught her well, but didn't want to hurt, much less kill, anyone. This, as she'd mentioned earlier, was her last chance at normal.

In just a couple of minutes they were all packed and ready to go. Emma grabbed her obnoxiously pink suitcase, making a mental note to ditch it as soon as possible so she wouldn't draw much attention to herself, and followed Dean out the motel to an old, black car. Without looking at her, Sam waited for her to get in the back seat and haul her own suitcase in before getting in as shotgun.

**I absolutely loved the new episode and was inspired enough to write this. With luck, and if enough of you review, I might incorporate this into my new Supernatural story, which I'll be posting soon. **


	2. Author's Note

Hey guys! Since I'm on break I decided to continue this story due to the fact that I got some reviews with people asking for a complete story. Now, I have options here, people. I can implement this to my other Supernatural story that I'm writing, which at first derived from Season Seven's Time For a Wedding but then changed into something similar and will now start on season 6X01 as AU.

Anyways, if I decide to continue with this story there will be no OC for Dean like I first pictured it and instead I'll just add Emma to the plot from The Slice Girls and on, though I'm a sucker for happy endings and would love to give Dean a family of his own. So, what do ya say? Uh? I'm asking this because I can only work on one Supernatural story at a time since I have other projects going on. I'm really excited about the AU one with an OC, and I think I could implement Emma to that story from season 6.

If you decide that you'd rather have me start writing from here on then just PM me your ideas of what could happen and your conflicts since this story is for those who, like me, thought Emma should have stuck around to mess with Dean. I'd like to make this an epic story. And change the heart-wrenching ending into something worse (or better, depending on how you look at it).

-GenLia


	3. Chapter 2

**Ok, so I've decided to simply continue this and implement Emma to the rest of the season. Yeah, yeah, I know I ranted about another possible Supernatural story with an OC but that took a weird turn back to the beginning of season six and all. It's a good idea in my opinion and all, except that I seem to have run out of idea or something an just can't bring myself to do anything else with it. Oh, and I found out what a Mary Sue with an OC is and realize that that's exactly where I was heading, which is not cool with me. So, I've dropped that idea. Now, instead I'm writing this. It sounds much better. **

**Besides, I recently read I'd like to stay in heaven but the rules are too tough by pelagia911 and realized what an amazing idea it is to bring in a dead character instead of an OC. This isn't slash, though. **

**Anyways, I'm going to shut up now and wait to hear from y'all, you know, see what your thoughts are. I'm open for any suggesting seeing that I'm sort of int he dark as to where this might go. I could go off the rails and go AU or simply add Emma to the mix. Your choice guys, so just leave me your ideas, comments, concerns and questions. :) **

* * *

><p>"We need to go pay a visit to the wonder women." Dean said a couple of minutes later as they headed into the freeway.<p>

Emma tensed, not liking the idea at all. "No! They'll kill us all."

"Girls are the ones that killed those men, Dean." Sam intervened, blatantly ignoring her. "We can't just burst in on them and crash their slumber party."

"They probably are expecting you." Emma added hoping to discourage them, tightening her grip on the seat. "It's suicide to go now."

Dean slammed his hands against the wheel, angry at the truth in those words. There went his plan. "So, what? We just sit on our asses and wait for them to come after us?"

"We can't do anything else for now."

After that, neither of the guys said anything and so Emma began to drift into sleep. A while later after probably dozing off a little, she heard voices. They were clearly trying to be quiet but Emma's hearing was quite good and she wasn't asleep anymore.

"What did you say to me… when I was the one who choked?" That was Sam and he sounded pissed. Like, really pissed. "What did you say about Amy?" When Dean didn't respond, Sam went on. "You kill the monster!" He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Emma concentrated on staying as still as possible and keeping her breathing under control so she wouldn't give herself away. Those two clearly had something going on, some sort of problem with each other. Whoever this Amy person was, she'd also been… different and probably important to Sam. And Dean had killed her, that much was obvious since Sam was still raving mad about that.

If there was something that the amazons had taught her was that it was important to know your enemy._ Find their weak point and use it against them_, Madeline had told her.

"I would have!" Dean replied in an angry tone.

Sam scoffed. "Oh the hell you were! You think I'm an idiot?" Now they were done trying to keep it down, Sam was pretty worked up if his own tone of voice was anything to go by. Emma still had her eyes closed, still trying to be inconspicuous and gathering as much information as possible.

"What, you think_ I_ am?"

"Dean, you let her walk!" Dean slammed his hand against the steering wheel, hard, and the car swerved a little. "Hell, she's coming with us now. We have bigger problems. We don't have time to play house with a monster."

"Shut up, Sam." Dean warned.

"I'm not going to shut up! And you know why? Because… because she's not yours." Sam paused, letting that sink in and Emma tensed. So that was Sam's course of action, to put Dean against her so he could kill her. "Not really." He finished in a more reasonable tone, trying to persuade his brother.

Emma held her breath and anxiously waited for Dean to reply. But he was taking his damn time and for a moment there she was sure that Sam had convinced him that she was a monster and therefore meant to be destroyed. The amazons had warned her against hunters, saying how they were ruthless in the killing of anything that wasn't human and to be careful with them. They shot first and asked questions later. Besides, who knew how long they'd been arguing or what else Sam had said before she woke up.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, she slid her knife down her sleeve towards her hand and gripped it tight just in case. It wouldn't be of much help against a gun or anything but she'd seen them put their weapons in the trunk. Emma was excellent at hand to hand combat though, and hoped that it was enough. She closed her eyes tightly, regretting not being able to at least try normal for a little while and waited.

Thankfully, she didn't wait too long. "Actually," Dean said with a bitter laugh. "she, uh, she is, really." Emma almost let out a grateful sigh but caught herself on time. "She just also happens to come from a crazy man-killing monster. But, uh, hey…"

Emma smiled a little at that, he had now idea.

"You know what?" Sam interrupted, still pissed but now he sounded resigned once again. "Bobby was right. Your head's not in it, man. When Cas died, you were wobbly, but now…" He trailed off and Emma strained to hear the next part. Finally some useful information on their lives. She was practically walking into their world with no clue as to what to expect but now she at least had some names. This Cas person was dead, it affected Dean, and there was someone named Bobby who seemed to know Dean enough to notice his change in behavior. What else?

"Now, _what_?" Dean asked sounding indignant. "Oh, what, you're dealing with it so perfect?" He didn't wait for Sam to respond, he went on, bitterness dripping from his words. "Yeah, newsflash, pal—you're just as screwed as I am! You're just… bigger."

"What?" Sam sounded confused now.

Dean sighed and when he spoke his next words he didn't even sound mad anymore. "I don't know." he was wary now.

"Look… Dean, the thing is, tonight… It almost got you killed." Emma was offended by this. Ok, so she'd meant to kill Dean there for a moment but she didn't think she would have been able to go through with it. Ever since her mom dumped her with those other women telling her to make her proud and all, Emma began to question things. It got her in trouble, once and she learned from it, but she quickly learned the beautiful art of pretense and lying to survive. No matter how much she hated doing what she did, all the training and prep talks, she didn't question them anymore and so she'd made a plan to get out of there ASAP.

Dean had just been her ticket to do just that. So, yeah, she wouldn't have killed him. He was never in any real danger with her. Now the roles were where they were supposed to be, or at least if it had been a normal family, and he was sort of protecting her.

"Now, I don't care how you deal," Sam went on, "I really, really, don't. But just don't—don't get killed." The last part came out almost as a whisper and for a moment there Sam sounded vulnerable. Yes, the overgrown man sounded hurt and scared. Clearly, he loved his brother. Madeline had been right, everyone had a weakness and Dean just happened to be Sam's. Emma wouldn't be surprised if the feeling was mutual with Dean.

Strategies aside, Emma couldn't help but feel a pang of pain and jealousy. While she hadn't been alive for long, Emma knew that that was exactly what humans did, they bonded and loved each other, specially family. But Emma's mom hadn't been exactly a loving mom and the rest of the women at the 'institute' weren't quite charming either. Instead of hugs and kisses like she saw a woman give her daughter from a window, Emma got tortured and taught how to kill and endure pain. But those two, Sam and Dean, despite whatever they'd gone through, they still loved each other because they were family. Emma didn't have any of that and it was a lot likely that she wouldn't get it from either of them. For just a couple of seconds she let herself be just a girl and allowed some feelings to creep out. Emma let herself be vulnerable and wish to be normal, to have a mom and a dad. Or at least someone to love her.

That's not possible, you're a warrior. She could almost hear Madeline say patronizingly and so Emma shut down everything once again. She had plan now, to run away from her tribe and she was sticking to it.

"I'll do what I can." Dean replied, sounding uncomfortable.

"Well, what's that supposed to mean?" Sam was now back to being defensive and Emma expected another argument, braced herself for it, but Dean just answered him in a calmly manner.

"It means that I'll do what I can. All right? You can shut up about it."

Nothing was said after that. Sam actually shut up.

* * *

><p><strong>So, there it is. I think is ok, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter what I think, so tell me. <strong>


	4. Plucky Pennywhistle's Part 1

**Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie**

Two days later, after endless hours of driving and stopping for 'errands' to which Emma was not invited to, and they finally got something. Or nothing, actually. But Emma at least had gathered some information about the boys. Apparently, not only was Cass dead, he was an actual angel, too. At first Emma had had trouble believing it, claiming that it was impossible, which made Dean smile a little. Anyways, as it turned out, he tried to pull one over the guys and became quite powerful after getting souls from purgatory. He wreaked havoc all over the world and killed a bunch of other angels before finally getting killed by something called Leviathan that was now out there eating people.

_Wow, mom chose a real peachy time to bring me here_, Emma thought grimly.

There was a lot that she didn't know, and she didn't like the ignorance. But none of the guys were telling her anything. Whatever. It was really a lot to digest as it was but there was more. Cass had been best friends with Dean, Emma gathered as much. He seemed too hurt and touchy feely about the whole subject for it to be anything but really important to him. So it seemed like, for now, they were laying low and even using code names with someone else named Frank to get info on her tribe. Emma had overheard Sam talking about a Bobby earlier and he was dead, too. He was the reason why Dean seemed to be even more messed up than usual. A lot of people were dying around them recently, good people, important to them and they were taking it hard.

"I am the eggman." Dean was saying over the payphone. Next to her, Sam smiled a little which made Dean roll his eyes and look away.

Emma didn't know what an eggman was, but it got a smile out of Grumpy and that was saying something. In the last two days he'd just brood somewhere in the corner, or rather in the car because he refused to share a room with her. No matter what Emma said or did, Sam wouldn't trust her and while Dean wasn't outright obvious about it, he didn't either. At least not completely. Emma didn't blame them, she didn't trust them either, but there was that stupid 'human' part of her that actually felt something. Every time Dean stared at her with distrust and wariness when he thought that she wasn't looking, Emma felt a pang of pain in her chest.

"I hope he finds something quick," Dean was saying as he approached them. "This whole protocol du jour thing's really creeping my cheese."

Most of what came out of Dean's mouth was confusing, and this was no different. What did he mean with creeping his cheese and the rest of whatever he just said? But Emma didn't say anything. It was better to wait and watch.

Sam shrugged. "So, we got dick on Dick?"

This time Dean gave Sam a wary look. "That's a vivid way of putting it." Then he glanced at Emma and he seemed to realize that what was just said might not be appropriate. "I'm sorry."

Emma shrugged. She'd heard worse coming from other people's mouth at the diner.

"So, anything on Wonder Woman?" Dean went on.

Sam shook his head. "No, and there probably won't be. They are definitely gone." Emma seriously doubted that but kept silent. Her tribe wouldn't idly step aside with one of them running around with a couple of hunters. Sooner or later they would come for her, of that Emma was sure. "But…" He held up a newspaper for his brother to see. Emma had seen him holding it but didn't bother to glance at it, now she barely got a quick look at it since Sam didn't even seem to want to share with her. It read 'Peculiar Death Baffles Authorities.' "I might have found something over in Kansas."

Dean clasped his hands together. "Well, what are we waiting for?" And so they drove over to Kansas.

"So, what I'm I going to do?" Emma asked a while later, leaning forward from the back seat to be between them. She was getting tired of mostly being ignored. In all their plans they never mentioned her, it was Dean this, Sam that. But there was no mention of Emma. Surely they weren't planning on leaving her behind.

The brothers exchanged a look but it was Dean the one who answered. "Emma, this is a case. You can't…"

"Yes I can." Emma interrupted. "I can help you. Dean, you forget that I'm not human." To prove her point she showed them her true form, to which Sam didn't react well. He tensed and glared.

"Oh, believe me, I know." Dean replied sarcastically. "I saw the bodies of those men the rest of your brethren killed."

Emma cringed on the inside but didn't let it show. "Then you know what I'm capable of. So let me help you."

Surprisingly, it was Sam the one that answered her. "You don't look old enough to be an FBI agent. Hell, you barely look old enough to go out by yourself." Emma took offense in that, just because she wasn't and didn't look too old didn't make her a liability. "So, no, you can't help us. If we need back up… then we call you."

"_If_ you need back up?" Emma inquired. She somehow doubted that they would actually ask for help. "Look, I know that neither of you are exactly happy about me joining your little posse. Guess what, neither I'm I. But if I'm here, I might as well help you."

Dean let out a sigh, he sounded tired. "Emma…"

"Don't Emma me. I'm offering an extra set of hands here," also, she wanted more info. "so take them."

The brothers exchanged a look, which seemed to be enough because Dean nodded. "Fine, you're coming with us. But you have to follow the rules."

Rules? Emma hadn't been made of aware of any rules before. What, did they think she was going to ruin their case or something? Or worse, did they actually think of her as a child? Emma gritted her teeth and leaned back on her seat, calmly waiting for Dean to speak. "Well?"

"First, you don't run off without one of us." Ok, that seemed reasonable to her. It was the trusting thing, she gathered. When she nodded, he went on. "Second, you don't… uh… slash anyone until we're sure he's the target. Understood?"

Rolling her eyes, Emma nodded. "Yes, that's fine by me. Not like I have anywhere else to go." For now. As soon as she got what those papers to survive out there in the real world, Emma was going away.

Dean watched with mild disgust the middle aged man lying on the morgue. His body was covered in raised circular marks as if something had tried to suck the freaking life out of him, which is exactly what they did. "Whoa, those are not the fun kind of hickies." He pointed out with a scrunched up expression.

"You're saying an octopus did this?" Sam asked the coroner.

"Not just any octopus." The coroner read off his report. "Based on the welt diameter, I would say enteroctopus dofleini."

Dean gave him a blank look, he had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. "Ok, and for those of us who skipped the octopus class?"

"Giant Pacific octopus." He clarified. "Approximately thirty feet."

Sam chuckled. "Really? Uh… I take it that they are rare around here. How did one get here?"

"Yet, here we are."

"So, what… guy comes home, cracks open a beer and gets suckered to death?" Looking at the body, that's exactly what it seemed like to Dean. Poor guy.

The doctor shook his head. "I think this is some kind of freak fetish attack. Someone created those hickey marks and then bled the man out." He tilted the man's head to one side to show them his neck where it had been cut.

As Sam and Dean walked out, Dean was trying to come up with an idea as to what exactly could have done that. "That look a little vampy to you?" He asked Sam.

"Yeah, no question about it."

"So what are we looking for?" Vamps usually didn't go all out on their kills like that. "An octovamp? Vamptapus?" It sounded crazy even to him.

Sam stopped in the hallway, worried. "That's crazy, right? Even for us?"

Dean nodded, "It does push the envelope. Let's go talk to the widow."

Just as they arrived at the house, the door opened and a woman whom they assumed was Mrs. Harper came out along with a young woman. At first, Dean thought that perhaps it was a friend but as they got closer, the young woman turned around. It was Emma. Sam looked over at him, annoyed and Dean ignored him. Inside, he was fuming. He'd told Emma to stay at their hotel and wait for them. They'd pick her up if something came up.

"Thanks a lot, Mrs. Harper." Emma was saying as they approached the place. She sounded kind and looked nice in a pencil skirt, white blouse and with those heels she was Dean's height. Her hair was pulled back into a neat, tight bun on top of her head and, was she wearing make up? "Once again, my deepest condolences."

Mrs. Harper didn't smile or anything, she just nodded and then looked over at the boys coming up behind Emma. "Thanks. And who are you?"

Dean grabbed Emma by the elbow and squeezed a little, telling her to shut up now. "I'm—"

"They're my partners." Emma said pleasantly, shooting Dean a dirty look. "Agent Jones and Johnson."

Mrs. Harper gave them both suspicious looks but nodded. She looked tired yet she didn't look like she'd been crying. In fact, she looked angrier than anything. "Hello."

Emma suddenly interrupted them. She wanted to get out of there now and tell them about what she found out. For a newbie, Emma felt like she did a good job. "Well, since I already did all the interrogating, we'll get out of your hair, ma'am. Thanks for your cooperation."

Once they were in the car, both boys twisted in their seat to look at her on the back of the car. Dean is the one that spoke up first. "I told you to wait for us at the Motel, not to start the investigation without us."

"You could've blown up our cover." Sam said.

Emma clenched her fists at her sides, regarding both of them coolly. "I'm going to ignore this and go ahead and tell you what I found out. I don't take it very kindly when someone underestimates me." She took out her little pad that where she wrote down the important info and read off it. "No haunting. Obviously. Sounds more like someone summoned the thing that killed him and my bet is with sweet Mrs. Harper. She thinks her husband was having an affair with Stacy, the nanny." She handed a paper with Stacy's address to Sam and leaned back on the seat with her arms crossed over her chest. Completely pleased with herself, Emma was waiting for them to react, do something. "Well, aren't you going to go see the nanny? Isn't that what you're supposed to do when you have a lead?"

Dean's eyes narrowed. "You're not off the hook, yet. We agreed not to wander off."

"I didn't, Dean. I helped and saved you time. Now you can go and see about that nanny or keep chastising me for a well done job." Emma arched an eyebrow and looked between the two of them, waiting for one to say something. They were really getting to her with the cold shoulder thing and mistrust. If she'd wanted to kill them or something she would have done it by now.

Well, she wouldn't hurt Dean, but Sam was definitely asking for it. Perhaps a little rattling…

Sam let out a sigh and faced the front. "I'll go check out that nanny. You stay and watch the wife." Dean tried to protest but Sam was fast getting out of the car.

Dean shot her an awkward smile through the rearview mirror. "So, let's see what's with the lady."

It was a while before anything even happened. Emma was bored out of her mind already and so far Dean hadn't said anything. Now, she didn't have any experience with humans and what they did with their family but so far she hadn't seen any of that warm and fuzzy crap they advertised on TV. Emma understood that the circumstances weren't the same. Hell, she was the very type of thing that Dean hunted and he probably didn't even want a kid, but would it even hurt him to at least be nice?

_This is all so overrated anyways_, Emma thought disdainfully. She fully intended to get out of their hair as soon as possible. _Preferably_ _with cash._ Unfortunately, Dean was a light sleeper. She'd noticed that last night when she was getting up for a glass of water. Dean had woken up but remained immobile just watching her. If it wasn't for the fact that Emma was well trained in the art of noticing small little things like the creaking the bed made when someone moved or the change in his breathing pattern, she wouldn't have noticed Dean waking up. But she was, and so it made things more interesting. No one would be able to sneak up on her.

What bothered her the most right now was the not so subtle sideway glances Dean gave her every now and then. "If you want to say something then say it already." Emma murmured without glancing at him.

"Excuse me?" Dean turned around to face her.

Emma glanced in his direction and met his eyes. Hmm, they were green like hers. "You've been shifting around for the past half an hour and you keep glancing back my way." It was best to lay down the cards now rather than later and straighten things with him. "So you either have something on your mind concerning me or… well, that's the only possibility so just say it already. I know I can't complain about the cold shoulder thing, but at least don't be so obvious about it."

His expression was priceless. It was a combination between outrage and incredulity. For a moment, Emma allowed herself to feel smug about it. "Look, you don't understand. It's not that we're giving you the cold shoulder…"

"Oh, yes you are." Emma cut him off. "And, like I said, I don't resent you for any of it. The only reason why I'm even here is probably for some sort of personal issue you have with stranded orphans or something. Point is, I just need time to adjust and then I'll be out of your hair. You can go back to doing whatever it is you were doing. Meanwhile, at least accept my help and don't be a crybaby about it."

Dean laughed humorlessly and ran a hand down his face. "I'm sorry, but this is all too strange to me. I never imagined myself in this… position."

Emma figured that much. Clearly, he knew nothing about being a father. But that was alright in her opinion. She wasn't looking for that despite the childish feelings of hurt and envy she sometimes felt. An Amazon was strong, proud and, most importantly, an independent woman. Men weren't good for much except reproduction. Not that Emma ever planned on having children. Oh, hell no.

"I see. Good for you." She said sarcastically.

"Look, Emma." Uh, oh, Dean didn't sound so cool anymore. "This has nothing to do with you, ok? I know you're my daughter and…"

"You would have killed me anyways if I hadn't actually been telling the truth about wanting to get out of my tribe." Emma stated bluntly. She'd heard their conversation before, so why even bother pretending. They wanted honest, well here it was. Besides, the shock on his face was almost funny. He clearly hadn't expected that. "I guess that I, and I quote you, just 'happen to come from a crazy man-killing monster.' But, uh, hey, right?" Her little speech ended up coming out sounding bitter, as if she actually cared for what he thought. Thing is, she didn't. At all. Or at least that's what she told herself.

_I'm an Amazon_, Emma thought fervently. _I don't need anyone else but myself and… my tribe_. But her tribe was the man-killing monster that Dean was talking about, not her and Emma didn't feel like killing anybody.

Dean surprised her by actually reaching out to her and placing a comforting hand on her knee. It was an awkward gesture, much like everything that went between them because Dean just didn't know what to do with her. Emma looked down at where his hand was and tried really hard to squish the small hope bubbling up her chest that maybe, just maybe, he did care that she was his daughter. _No! He doesn't care. Stop it. _He was a hunter and they were supposed to be ruthless.

"I'm sorry for not being… you know, all father-like and crap." Emma looked up and met his gaze, shrugging. It was safe to go for indifferent. "I've just never… the circumstances aren't normal, ok?"

Emma sighed and pulled away from him. "I'm not exactly daughter material, Dean. I don't care whether you suddenly become all warm and fuzzy with me. What I want is to help and learn how to function out in the world." She swallowed and lifted her chin in an act of defiance. "Can you at least do that for me? That's all I'm asking for."

Before he could answer, his phone rang. It rang three times and then he finally answered the phone without taking his eyes off Emma. "Sam, what you got?"

Whatever they talked about, Emma didn't care for. Looking out the window at the little girl playing outside, Emma tried to imagine herself at that age playing with her. Because of her accelerated growth, she never got to have a childhood or friends. The girls from her tribe didn't count, they were never her friends. At the institute, it was all about being tough and doing their best on training. Madeline always said how the most important thing in the world was their goddess and to never betray her. Thanks to the goddess they'd been able to survive through the years and so she deserved their gratitude.

It was awful, that loneliness that seemed to plague Emma. At least in her tribe she wasn't alone. Now, though, her life was crappy. And when she finally got a new life, she'd be more alone than ever.

Dean got Emma's attention as he was exiting the car, motioning for her to do the same. "Alright, Sammy. I'll try to talk to her without tripping the AMBER alert." And he hung up. "Sam thinks that it was the girl who unleashed octovamp on daddy dearest for ditching her at her party."

As soon as they stood in front of the kid, she looked up and even spoke first. "I know who you are." She said looking at Emma, and completely ignoring Dean.

Emma thought for a moment that she'd really blown their cover when she spoke to the mom alone. She shared a worried look with Dean before offering the little girl a non-threatening smile, hoping to look like a nice lady. "You do?"

Kelley nodded. "Yeah. You're the lady that talked to my mom." Emma sighed relieved and crouched down to the girl's level.

"Yup, that was me."

Just then the girl's mom began calling for her daughter from inside the house. So they didn't have much time left, it seemed. "Something wrong?" Dean asked.

The girl looked back at them and said, "My mom will get mad if I talk to you."

"How come?" Emma asked. She wondered for a second if her nice lady façade was working. The little girl was beginning to look worried.

"Because of what I told the police." Little girl answered. Now we're getting somewhere, Emma thought almost giddy.

"What did you tell the police?"

Kelley looked down for a moment to gather her thoughts and when she looked up, the fear was clear in her eyes. "I told them I tried to warn my dad." She looked back at the house to make sure her mom wasn't there and then went on in a rush. "That the monster would get him."

Just then Mrs. Harper opened the door and gave them the stink eye. "Come here! Now, Kelley!"

Kelley quickly got up and ran into the house. Mrs. Harper stayed just long enough to let them know that she wanted them to stay away before following her daughter inside. Angry, Emma thought about going in and demanding answers. Instead, she just got up with a grunt. There was no need to use violence.

"Hey, look." Dean said, pointing at the floor.

It was then that Emma paid any attention to what the girl had drawn on the floor. It was an octopus with sharp teeth and a less than friendly expression. "Aren't human kids supposed to love animals and draw fluffy clouds or something?" She asked Dean.

Dean flashed her a smile. "Kids are anything but lovable, the little devils."

The next morning Dean brought Emma along with him to the next crime scene. It surprised Emma that he actually asked her. She'd been ready to argue that they needed her or something. It was nice, though. Unfortunately, they had to wake Sam up and he wasn't happy about the fact that Emma went. But he was tired because he hadn't slept well in the car and so he went into their room saying he was taking a nap.

It was ok in her opinion. Sam could keep being a complete jerk if he wanted to. It wasn't her blood pressure that skyrocketed.

At the crime scene, the local police let them in and Emma wondered why it was so easy. Why they didn't ask any questions. She was about to ask Dean but then thought better about it. Their laws were probably not good, it was the thing she could come up with.

Together, they examined the hole on the fence covered in blood. All around them, people were noisy and that was annoying Emma. What was the freaking problem with a dead body and a little blood anyways? People died all the time.

"Uh" Dean said.

"Uh, what?"

Just then a police officer wandered over to them and Dean asked him questions. "Hey, um… Okay, so, the horse I get." He motioned over to the fence. "The hoofprints, the jumping over the fence. But, uh, what ran him through?" Emma was wondering the same thing.

The police officer stared at Emma for a moment, probably thinking that she looked too young to be there. "Aren't you a little too young to be FBI?"

"A woman never says her true age, officer." Emma made sure her voice came out sounding just right, not too low, but a little sultry and even flashed him a little smile. She almost gagged, the guy was way too old. Old like Dean maybe, or even older. But blowing her cover wasn't an option. "Now, you were about to answer my partner's question?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." He finally turned to Dean. "We're not sure what it was yet. But I can tell you that it was something… big."

Emma glanced over at the fence and couldn't agree more. "What, like a lance?" Those were easy to throw and probably big enough to kill the man. Anyone could do it, even if they were riding a horse or something.

The officer just shrugged. Off to the side the body was being wheeled towards the ambulance on a stretcher covered with a white sheet. Next to the ambulance a woman was just standing there looking anxious. Emma looked at Dean who shrugged and they both walked over to her, hoping to get something out of her. The officer must have noticed them looking at her because he said, "It's sad. Lady's got to pull her friggin' 8-year-old out of school and tell him dad's dead."

"Excuse us," Emma told him, grabbing Dean and pulling him towards the lady. "Coincidence that Kelley is about the same age? I mean, there's another kid involved and he was probably mad at daddy, too."

Holding up their FBI badges, Dean and Emma are able to get to the lady, who looked more distressed by the minute. Emma was hoping that she didn't just burst into tears or something equally uncomfortable around her. "I'm Agent Doe," she gestured to Dean. "my partner Agent Jones."

The lady just looked at them for a second before holding up her hands and saying, "I'm sorry, but I really need to go."

"Just one quick question," Dean said and the lady reluctantly turned around, crossing her arms over chest. "Was yesterday your son's birthday?"

"Billy's birthday?" The woman asked incredulous, as if she couldn't believe what they were asking. "No! Why would you ask that?"

Emma intervened then, before the woman actually had a breakdown. "Never mind."

"Well," They stopped when the woman spoke up. "His father did take him to a friend's birthday party yesterday." Her voice broke and so Emma thanked her, hurrying Dean away.

"Ok, so they were both at… Plucky's?" Emma asked. She couldn't believe the ridiculous name for a kid's place. What in the hell was a Plucky?

Dean shrugged. "I'm guessing, yes." He took out his phone and dialed. "Hey, do you remember a chain called Plucky Pennywhistle's?"

They reached the car then and Emma got in, but she could still hear Dean talking.

"Really?" Dean asked, confused. "I could've sworn you loved those places… It's not like I left you in jail. I mean, those places are supposed to be fun." _Really?_ Emma thought with amusement. _Sam loved a place called Pennywhistle's?_ She snorted quietly, no wonder he turned out all grumpy and wrong. A place that was called like that couldn't be any good. "All right, don't have one of your episodes, okay? Thing is, both kids were there. So, go check it out and ask about this Billy kid… uh, no. I'm heading to talk to little Billy. Wait, wait, wait." Now Dean sounded just plain amused. "This isn't about your clown thing, is it? Oh, Sammy, what in the world did they do to you? Look, 99.99% of all clowns can't hurt you. And if it bleeds… you can kill it."

Dean was still smiling as he started the car and pulled out of the place.

"If it bleeds you can kill it?" Emma asked, a tad amused herself. Because what was better than knowing that Sam was afraid of something? Whatever a clown was, Dean didn't seem worried. "What exactly is a clown? I take it that it isn't harmful?"

"It's just a man with make up and funny clothes meant to make kids laugh." That didn't sound so bad. "But whatever they did to Sam, it scarred him for life. He used to bust out crying just by looking at Ronald McDonald on tv." Whatever that was. "Wait, why don't you go with him?"

"What?"

Dean smiled. 'Yeah, yeah. You go with him to Plucky's."

And that's how Emma ended up waiting for Sam to get to the local Plucky's so she could go with him. She stood there, arms hanging loose at her sides with a bored look on her face. Every now and then she'd glance at her watch. Sam took his sweet time getting there, too. Dean had dropped her off about half an hour ago and still no scared little Sam.

"What are you doing here?" Sam hissed at her, grabbing her arm in a painful grip and hauling her off to the side.

Emma shook him off and turned around to face him with an antagonizing smile. "I'm here to protect you, Sammy. From the clowns."

Sam's face hardened. "He told you?"

"I heard him talking about clowns, assumed you're afraid of them." She shrugged and then planted a big smile on her face. "Ready to go in?"

Just as she suspected, Sam tensed up and exhaled sharply the moment they stepped in. Emma would be lying if she said that all those… clowns didn't creep her out a little bit, too. All the make up and huge smiles looked wrong. One of them even opened its mouth. Augh.

Leaving Sam to look around the place, she approached a man at the front desk.

"Welcome to Pluckly's, where all your dreams are good." Howard, his name tag read.

Emma showed him her badge. "Just get me your manager, please." The man left and Emma found Sam having a staring contest with the clown that moved its mouth. "I see you made a new friend. Why don't you introduce us?"

Sam turned around sharply, a wild look on his eyes and for a moment there Emma thought that he was going to snap at her. He didn't, though. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. When he opened his eyes he seemed back to normal. "Very funny, Emma. Aren't you a little, I don't know, young to be hanging around grown ups?"

Surprised that Sam even replied, Emma stood there for a moment. Looking pleased with himself, Sam walked around her towards a big wall with drawings. Emma noticed a young woman dressed like an employee talking to a little boy a couple of tables away. She was telling him to stay sane for a couple hours more and finish his homework. The little rugrat was clearly mad at mommy for taking him to such lame place.

Finally, Emma faced the wall and raised her eyebrows. All those drawings were of something 'scary.' There was a shark, a big green-looking thing and other stuff that Emma wasn't familiar with. "These kids are seriously messed up." She murmured.

"Yeah, no kidding." Sam replied.

"Real beauties, uh?" A woman interrupted them. She was short and with long black hair, dressed like an employee, too. "We rotate them once a week. Kids love having their art on the wall." She was saying as she stood closer to them.

"Draw your worst fear?" Emma inquired, noticing that her tag name read Jean.

Jean made a face. "I know! But we don't post the truly evil stuff—just the standard crap like shark and ghosts." _Uh, so those were the floaty, ugly things_, Emma thought. _Nice to know human kids weren't so stupid after all._ Jean held out her hand and shook Sam's hand first and then Emma's, giving her a quick once over with a little frown. Another one that questioned her age. It was getting old real fast.

Jean explained to them what the drawings meant and Emma had to admit that she was impressed with the load of bullcrap that she was told. Apparently, it was supposed to help with child development. Emma didn't use this and turned out just fine. Ha, just fine. Kids were supposed to draw their fears on the box and this Plucky thing transformed it into rainbows and candy, as if that was possible. You didn't get rid of fear like that. It was all about overcoming said fear, facing it. If not, one would always live in fear. Like a coward.

A laughing clown walked by them, and got quite close to Sam and Emma's face. Sam leaned back and, to her surprise, grabbed her arm, pulling her forward a little as he stepped back. What, did he think she was really there to protect him from the clown?

"Um, so, I don't know if you remember," Emma was saying. "but there was a kid in here yesterday named Billy Pogue for a party?"

Recognition flashed across the woman's face. "Oh, the conniption kid." And so the woman explained about the douchebag dad who embarrassed the kid.

After the woman left, Emma was about to call Dean when she noticed Sam chatting up with a janitor. She waited calmly for them to finish before approaching Sam to ask him about it. "So, what did he say?"

Sam shook his head. "Let's go back to the motel and I'll explain."

Emma gritted her teeth but nodded. Uncle Sam was still being a douchebag. When they arrived at the motel, Dean was already there, taking out the food from brown bags.

"So what's the lowdown from trauma town?" Dean smiled at the face that Sam made.

Since nobody asked her anything, Emma remained silent and let Sam explain. To pass the time, she took the white paper box with sticks attached to them from Dean and sat down to eat.

"I can tell you this much, neither vic was up for parent of the year. Kelley's dad skipped a birthday party and Billy's dad pulled one of those dick parent scenes that makes everyone cringe." He put the pile of drawings from the kid's place in front of Dean.

Dean set aside his own white box and began to look through the pile of papers. "What the hell are these?"

"Kid therapy." Sam answered. "You draw your worst nightmare and poof, Plucky fixes it." He took off his suit jacket and draped it over a chair. "They hang them up on this big wall."

Emma approached Dean to look at the pictures. Once again, Sam hadn't let her seen any of it on the way. "Well, I can't argue with this." He passed the pictures to Emma. "Leprechauns are deadly." Sam scoffed from the other side of the small room.

"So, Kelley," Emma interrupted, putting the papers aside. "sweet little girl that was afraid of mommy, draws a monster and sends it after her father? That's your theory?" That seemed a little farfetched. Human kids were stupid sometimes, but they couldn't be that cruel right?

Sam and Dean exchanged a look.

"Yeah, pretty much." Dean replied. The way he said it, unimpressed, made Emma wonder what in the hell those two had dealt with in the past to be so nonchalant about things.

Sam just shrugged and went on. "But here's the thing, they label those drawings, and there were two missing."

"Octovamp and Billy's." Emma remembered those.

"So whatever he drew came to life and killed his dad on a horse."

Dean took out something from his jacket then. "Close, but no seabiscuit." It was another picture and there was a horse with a horn and a bad drawn figure impaled on it. That was… violent and quite graphic. "When I went to talk to Billy, he drew this."

Sam came over too and took a look, raising his eyebrows with a look of disbelief and amusement on his face. "Now unicorns are evil?"

"Obviously," Dean replied seriously, drawing a laugh out of Sam. Emma was just confused. So this was a unicorn, what was the big deal.

"Great. Well, now the question is how did a unicorn come to life off a sketch and kill Billy's dad?"

"So unicorns aren't… alive?" Emma finally asked. She didn't like not knowing.

Dean cleared his throat. "Emma, unicorns aren't real. They're just fairytales. Make-believe. Whatever floats your boat."

Emma let out a frustrated sigh. "I don't have a boat. You don't make any sense!"

For a moment the room was silent and Emma thought that she'd said something wrong, though she couldn't figure out what. Sam was looking at Dean like he expected him to break down or something. Dean just… well, he looked a little faraway at the moment. What was wrong with him? "Uh, Dean?" she snapped her fingers in front of him and he blinked.

"Sorry, yeah, unicorns don't exist." He cleared his throat and looked away.

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	5. Plucky Pennywhistle's Part 2

**Plucky Pennywhistle's Magic Menagerie Part 2 **

That night things got weird again. Except that this time it wasn't Dean. Emma had just finished taking a shower and was just changing into some sweats and a t-shirt burrowed from Dean when she heard some murmuring. At first she thought that Dean and Sam were having one of their 'hushed' talks but then she remembered that Dean had gone to the kid's place after hearing that there had been another death there.

Emma opened the door a little bit to see but no one except Sam was there just like she thought. He was pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair looking like he was about to rip it from his head out of desperation. Actually, he was alternating between that and wringing his hands, or rather digging his thumbs into his left palm. And he was murmuring under his breath. It was hard to make out the words but she caught something about Lucifer and the girl. She figured that he was referring to her but who knew.

Suddenly, Sam was facing her. She'd been caught so she stopped any pretenses and came out of the restroom, steam all around her. The room felt cold and uninviting. Sam was giving her a less than friendly look. The guy looked like he'd run a marathon. "You ok, Sam?" Emma asked casually as she dried her hair.

Sam didn't answer. He just followed her movements with his stare, unnerving her. Were humans supposed to be that still? "Sam?" She repeated.

"It's not going to work, you know." Sam's voice was low and strained.

Emma threw the towel to the bed in frustration and ran her hands through her own hair. So that's what it was about, uh? "I know you don't trust me but I haven't slit your throat in your sleep, now have I? So give me a little credit here!" Sam still didn't move, he just stared at her with panic and barely contained rage. What was his problem? Why the sudden change? This afternoon he'd been somewhat civilized and now this? Dude had some serious issues. You know, she never bothered to ask but it could be possible he was bipolar. They talked about the sudden mood changes and other symptoms on a commercial she watched.

Sam suddenly continued rubbing the palm of his hand like crazy. If he didn't stop he'd actually rub the skin off. Emma eyed him warily for a moment before deciding that she needed to do something about it, or else Dean would get really mad if Sam got hurt. "Ok, Uncle Sam. Time to go to bed."

"Don't come any closer, Emma!" Sam threatened.

Emma stopped in the middle of the room and raised an eyebrow.

After a couple of deeps breaths, and more rubbing off the skin, Sam seemed almost back to normal. Almost. The wild look about him was still there, confusing Emma. "When did you have time to get drunk?"

Sam shot her a look and made a face. "You mention any of this to Dean and _I_ slit your throat, got it?" Completely taken back by the threat Emma remained silent and let him get it out of his system. "Because you know what?" As he spoke, he closed the gap between them and got real up close. Emma tensed, ready to duck if needed and reach for her knife that was currently strapped to her leg. "I don't trust your little goody-two-shoes façade. You don't care that Dean is your father at all and so you're taking advantage of his issues to save your sorry ass."

"Go to hell, Sam." Emma replied as calm as possible. Picking up a fight right now would be stupid. Besides, the guy was probably off his rocket. He didn't know anything. He didn't know Emma at all.

Sam laughed bitterly. "Been there, done that. I didn't even get a T-shirt." He replied bitterly.

Emma wasn't sure if he was kidding or not but since she really didn't care, she just ignored him. "Too bad. I'll be sure to get you one for Christmas, _Uncle Sam_." Perhaps antagonizing him when he was mad at her wasn't the best course of action but she couldn't help herself. She wasn't about to let him, or anyone else, treat her like a liar when all she was trying to do was play nice. As an Amazon, her word was true. And Emma had promised to herself not to hurt anyone, not to become like her tribe. So, she would stick to her word.

Just then the door opened and Dean walked in chewing some candy. He looked between the two of them, noted their defensive stances and frowned. "What's going on?" Emma looked at Sam with a smug smile, taunting him.

"Sam, would you like to tell him?"

Sam visibly relaxed and rolled his shoulders. "Emma was just showing me her training." He lied easily. "She's… good."

Emma snorted. "Good? I'm better than the two of you combined."

Dean walked further in and looked between the two of them with suspicion. "Uh, huh. The two of you suddenly decided to have a powwow."

Sam nodded. "Yup."

"Well, while the two of you were having a blast," Dean said sarcastically. "I went to see that janitor and, guess what? He's dead. Killed in the ball pit by a friggin' shark. Well, that's my theory. The cops say it was the…" He chuckled. "ball washer. But no, I saw the body and judging from the radius of the bite, I'd say a twenty footer, at least."

"Shark?" Sam asked skeptically. "How does a shark get into a ball pit?"

Dean threw his hands up in the air. "Beats me."

"More importantly, how do you know about sharks?"

"'Shark Week,' man. How do you not watch that?" Dean sat down on one of the beds and began pulling his shoes off. "Anyways, I went in there and looked around. Little Omar was afraid of sharks, I found his label on the wall."

Sam leaned against one of the walls and avoided meeting Emma's gaze, completely disregarding her. Emma was ok with that, but she wouldn't remain silent for long. Dean would certainly be mad at her for hiding this. She didn't need to know them long to see how much Dean cared for his brother. He was always watching out for Sammy.

"So this isn't about ganking some duckweed parent? I mean, Saul isn't connected." Sam said.

Dean paused taking his other shoe off and looked up at Sam, a little wary. "Right. More like, uh, silencing a whistle-blower, then?"

"Great." Emma said. "So whatever we're looking for can literally fire off childhood fears at will. Wow. Watch out for the Boogey man." She held up her arms and waved them around as if she was trying to fend something off then dropped them when neither of the guys even smiled. "Ok, so what's next?"

In the morning, everyone got up too early. Well, too early for Emma. She wanted to keep sleeping but the last time she overslept Sam brought her crappy breakfast and shrugged it off saying how he just guessed because she was still asleep. Yeah, right.

"Maybe a Tulpa?" Sam mentioned over his computer. "Or an Angel?" That interested Emma. She wanted to meet one of these so called angels.

Dean shook his head, though, and Emma's excitement died down. "Doubt it. A little imaginative for the God squad, don't you think?"

Sam sighed and closed his computer. "Ok, so… what?"

Emma wasn't knowledgeable enough to even say anything. She didn't even know what a Tulpa, or whatever, was. "Whatever it is, at least we know where it is." She supplied. Whatever she did, whatever she said, Emma never really felt like she was in on everything. Emma felt… isolated. It was probably just an Amazon thing, Madeline had said something about sticking together to remain strong. Amazons were probably creatures that are supposed to stay together, like sociable and all. That was it.

"Plucky's!" Dean said as he put down his coffee.

The smell of coffee wafted off towards Emma and she had to admit that whatever that thing was, it smelled good. Sam and Dean were always drinking it and they seemed to like it. "Can I have some?" Emma asked Dean.

Dean's hand tightened on his coffee and Emma thought that he'd refuse but then he offered it up to her. "Sure, though I doubt you'll like it."

Emma took a small sip from it and it was like a mini explosion of something flavory and strong going off in her mouth. It was so good.

Sam clapped his hands once and got up. "Alrighty, then. I'll play bad cop." He walked towards the bathroom.

"And?" Dean asked.

Sam turned around. "And… when I'm done, then you watch them. See if any of them look guilty or somethin'."

"So if somebody freaks out, then that's our creep."

Sam nodded. "Or he'll lead us closer, and you can track him."

"Ok, but what's my cover?"

"I don't know!" Sam replied. "Just hang back. Act normal." He went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Dean went back to going through a notebook he had laid out in front of him. "Yeah, yeah. Guy in his thirties hanging out at Plucky's alone—that's normal. Not pervy at all."

"What's pervy?" Emma asked between sips. She really liked this stuff.

"Like, pervert." Dean clarified. Emma just stared at him, she still didn't get it. "Child-molester type of person."

"Ohh."

When Dean perked up a couple of seconds later Emma watched him warily. "Hey, you can be part of my cover." He picked up his keys and gestured for Emma to follow him. "C'mon, we got an errand to do. I'll even buy you more coffee."

Emma really should have known better than to be bribed with coffee. No amount of caffeine was worth the humiliation of dressing up like a little girl, with two effin' low pigtails, a pink shirt with hello kitty on it and jeans. At least the bangs helped a little, but it wasn't enough. Emma still looked like a preteen or something and everything so Dean wouldn't look like a pervy guy.

That's exactly how she ended up sitting on an awful table with squeaky chairs across from Dean. From where they were sitting, Emma could see Sam heading into a room to talk to the manager. And dang it, he looked like a mean thing.

"This is ridiculous, Dean." Emma complained, looking all miserable. "I look like a teen-wannabe. I'm too old for this."

Dean smiled. "Nah, you look perfect. This way nobody will ask questions. I brought you here to have fun so," he waved his arms around. "go have fun."

Emma glared. "Not having fun in this hellhole, Dean. I'm not even getting up dressed like this."

A true little girl walked by their table playing with a giant colorful thing that Emma eyed with disdain and Dean perked up again. He looked back to see where the girl had come from and said, "Em, be right back. Just stay here and… do your thing."

"What?" Emma wasn't about to be left alone just so he could go and actually have fun.

Dean stood up and made his way to the back of the place where there were a bunch of giant, colorful things like teddy bears and other crap on display. Emma watched him get frustrated with the dude and come back defeated. "Couldn't get that slinky." He announced ruefully.

"I don't see the point of any of this." Emma said but she got up anyways and decided to do her good deed of the day already. "But I'll see what I can do."

/

Then Dean left again a couple of minutes later to go see a little boy a couple of tables over. Emma listened in on their conversation and heard that the little boy hated the place quite a lot. The food was bad, too, apparently and his mom was a total bitch. Surprisingly, Dean tried to sympathize with the boy and told him to give his mom a break. He even talked about his dad with him. How come he could open up to a stranger and not… her? Wait, she was going down that dangerous path again. _Not going there. It's just temporary. _

Just then a cheery man that Sam had been interrogating walked past and was pervy with a kid nearby. That guy was so… nice, it was sickening in Emma's opinion. Dean came back to the table and texted the negative to Sam.

"So, having fun, yet?" Emma asked Dean.

Dean made a face. "Yeah, lots. Anyways, that kid is scared of robots."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "And Sam is scared of clowns. Shocker."

Suddenly, a yellow furry man ran past them and Sam yelled out for Dean to follow him. Dean got up but wasn't fast enough and Emma got ahead of him by getting on top of two tables and leaping into the air, landing perfectly in a crouch. Emma followed the man out a back door that lead to the street and caught up to him pretty quickly. She grabbed the tail, thinking that she had him, but the thing came off. Angry, she threw it away and jumped the guy from behind, which caused them to land on a stupid pile of tires. Those things were really bouncy and annoying, and the guy kept squirming. Finally, after some rolling, Emma pinned him down and he had the audacity to hold his hands, paws, up.

"If this is about the met lab that fireballed in Butte…" The Furry man began speaking hurriedly and Emma barely caught anything.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She told him. "Ok, uh… what's your name?" that was the polite thing to say, right? Humans were all about politeness.

Just then Dean and Sam joined her. Dean threw her a thumbs up and a smile, he was panting as was Sam.

"Cliff."

"Cliff, you're not using kid's nightmares to smoke people, are you?" Dean asked, finally catching up.

Cliff seemed confused, he looked between Emma and Dean. "Uh… don't think so?"

Dean looked up at Sam and shook his head.

Emma looked down at Cliff who seemed to be enjoying having her on top of him and got up, disgusted. "Get up." She told him.

Dean is the one that hauled Cliff to his feet because Emma refused to touch him again. _Pervy_, she thought.

"Ok, we don't care about," Emma waved her hands around in frustration. "whatever you were talking about earlier. But there's some seriously weird stuff going on here."

Cliff nodded. "You mean the sub-basement."

"The place has a sub-basement?" Sam asked, quickly jumping on this new information.

"Sure. Door's out back."

"What's in there?" Dean asked.

Cliff shrugged. "All I know is… Me and Saul used to come in after hours sometimes and…" Emma jumped a little when the guy let out a maniac laugh. "You ever shroom in a ball pit?" He asked her.

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" She told him, sure that she'd never done anything like that.

Dean pushed the guy backwards away from Emma. "Now don't get too friendly, there." He warned him and that wiped the smile off his face.

"Not that I… would, agents. It was Saul. Just Saul. All alone." Emma glared at him and he cleared his throat. "Anyway… sometimes we'd hear, like, spooky stuff, through the vents… coming up from the boiler room."

When they got back inside, the little boy that Dean talked to earlier was exiting the place with his mom. Dean rummaged through the boy's stuff and when he didn't find what he was looking for, he looked worried.

"What is it, Dean?" Sam asked.

"I think the bitchy mom plus, uh, sad kid plus place mat with something nuts written on it… equals wacky corpse."

"So she's next on the list?" Emma asked, busy undoing her left braid since the thing holding the other one had just snapped. She didn't want to look weirder with only one braid.

Dean nodded. "All right, I'll tail them just to be safe. Emma, you're coming with me."

Emma looked at Sam with surprise. "So you're that impressed with my fighting skills, uh?"

Sam gave her a dirty look. "Yeah, amazed, really."

Dean looked between the two of them and shook his head. "I'm not even gonna ask right now. I'll go check out the boiling room, you two go."

They walk off but then Sam turned back to ask what the boy drew.

"Robot." Dean told him.

"Robot?" Sam echoed.

"Yeah, about the size of a house. Shoots destructo beams out of its eyes."

Sam turned back around and walked with Emma. "At least we'll see it coming."

Dean went to the sub-basement of Plucky's by himself and the whole time he hoped to finally find something good. His instincts were telling him that he was in the right direction, and he always trusted his instincts. Thing was, he couldn't wait to get out of this whole Plucky's mess. It made him feel guilty for leaving Sam in one of these places when he was a kid. It was probably why the kid was afraid of clowns. And here he thought he'd been doing a good job.

It didn't take Dean long to find an altar with a fire going and a symbol on the floor. That wasn't it, though. There were children's pictures all over the walls. One had a boy under water and more clown figurines. Ugly things. Besides the creepy drawing there was a picture of two boys celebrating a birthday. Next, he found a book with symbols. Underneath it was Tyler's missing drawing. Bingo.

"Drop it." Came a voice from behind him and Dean froze. He knew that voice. Slowly, he turned around and wasn't surprised to see Howard there. What surprised him was that he was holding a gun. "Drop it!" Howard yelled again, a little more desperate.

Dean lowered the gun to the floor, trying to buy some time. Surely, this guy wouldn't shoot. He didn't seem to have it in him. Instead, he seemed to have others, like, nightmares, do his dirty work.

Howard calmed a little bit then. "Mm-hmm. Now kick it over." Dammit, Dean had been counting on his stupidity. Reluctantly, he slid the gun towards Howard with his foot. What else could he do? It was either that or get shot.

"Some pretty heavy hoodoo you got here." Dean casually commented, looking around. "I gotta say, as far as I know, none of these things, uh, can poop out a Unicorn." Or an Octovamp.

Howard eyed him warily and walked closer. Dean felt a little more confident because now the pot of crap was between them, he could probably escape.

"There's a lot of power in fear. When a child draws what he's afraid of, a little of that… mojo ends up on the page."

Alright, so he was talking now. Dean could find out what was going on. "So what, you set fire and some bed wetter's horror show comes to life?"

"I have to have something of the parent, too." Howard clarified. "Something they own. That bit gets tricky."

Dean gave him a sarcastic smile. "That doesn't seem to slow you down." Mistake, Howard got fanatical.

"I'm just doing what I need to!" He said vehemently.

"Okay, I get it." Dean then reached back and grabbed the book from the table, hurling it at Howard to distract him while he ripped Tyler's drawing in half. "No drawing… no Iron Giant." And thank god for that. Sammy and Emma wouldn't have been able to fight against it. He needed to protect them.

Pissed off, Howard raised his voice. "Oh, that b-word is still on the list!" After his little outburst, he calmed down a little. Dean was a little disturbed by how calmer he seemed. That was never a good sign. In the movies, that meant they had an ace up their sleeve and Dean wasn't in the mood for that kind of thing right now. He had too much on his plate as it was. "But not tonight. Bigger fish."

Dean decided to make him nervous again, then. More likely he'd make a mistake. "What, are you gonna shoot me, Howard? You really want a body on your hands? Blood everywhere!"

Howard waved the gun around dangerously and Dean took a step back. That moron probably didn't even know how to use one of those properly. "I'd shut up!" Bingo, he was rattled again. "'Cause I got lots of ways to take care of bullies. Don't worry. Like that FBI guy and the girl." Dean clenched his jaw. Howard must have seen his reaction because he smiled a little and it wasn't nice. "They're your pals, right? The girl, she's not FBI, too young. But I saw you chase Cliff down." He nodded, as if it all made sense. Truth be told, the guy was definitely off his rocket. He looked all sorts of crazy. "Five minutes ago, his card was torched. His and that girl's hair pin. Along with something from my… personal collection." Still pointing his gun at Dean, Howard picked up several papers with children's drawings from a nearby table. "I picked it out real special for them, too."

"I assume that you're not bringing me along to chat about unicorns and clowns." Emma took a little satisfaction from seeing him flinch at the mention of clowns. "So what is it that you want to talk about?"

Sam's grip on the wheel tightened to the point that his knuckles whitened. "You didn't tell Dean what happened." He stated.

Emma tilted her head to one side. "No, so?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to avoid as many conflicts as possible." She said honestly. "And I have nothing against you. Well… except perhaps a little grudge for the fact that you tried to shoot me. But I can forgive and forget."

Sam's hold on the wheel loosened and he rolled his shoulders trying to relax. "Thanks, anyways."

"Is that it?" Emma asked.

"Not really. I want to know what exactly you're doing here. What I said last night…" He trailed off and sighed. At least he did sound remorseful. "I said it all wrong, Emma. I was… out of it. I apologize but if you truly don't mean any harm then I'd at least like for you to be honest."

Emma threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "I told Dean the truth." Her hands clenched into fists on her lap and for the first time in a couple of days she dared stare at the brand on her wrist. It was just an old-looking scar now, completely healed, but to Emma it still felt raw. If she closed her eyes and concentrated, she could still feel the burn of the hot iron.

"Dean didn't tell me much."

With a sigh, Emma took the hint. Dean probably did tell him everything, but he just wanted to make sure. "I didn't escape the institute. I told myself that I'd really do it. It's what I've been trained for, you know? But then I got to the hotel where you guys were staying and… I saw him. Dean, I mean." She let out a small, humorless laugh and nervously scratched the brand with her nail. "You'd have to be blind not to see the resemblance between me and him. Then we talked and even as I said my lines to him, the ones I'd practiced on my way there, I found myself speaking the truth. I don't want to be like them and do terrible things. Even at the institute I was a freak. The daughter of a hunter."

Sam's expression was understanding and Emma wondered if she'd misjudged him. His life wasn't an easy one either and whatever had gone down the night before couldn't be good. "You're preaching to the choir about identity problems."

Emma mustered up a little smile. "Sam, I have nothing against you. Or Dean for that matter. I wouldn't, literally, be alive if it wasn't for him. The thing is, I'm not going to turn against you. I just want to be normal. As soon as your friend Frank can get me some papers and a new life, a real one, I'll be out of your lives."

"Emma… Dean doesn't want you out of his life." Emma snorted. "If you don't believe me…"

"We're here." Emma really didn't want to talk about any of that right now so as soon as the car stopped, she was out. He'd stopped the car across the street from where a woman was getting out of her car with the boy that Dean talked to earlier. It was getting dark, but Emma could see quite clearly. One of the perks of being an Amazon.

She turned to see Sam also getting out. Since Emma was looking in his direction, she spotted the freaking clown first. It was standing right behind Sam. For a second she didn't know what to say, that thing was ugly and, well, scary. Sam must have noticed her expression because he turned around and gasped.

Suddenly the clown let out a laugh that seemed to wake Sam up. He sprinted across the lot and the clown followed him. Confused, Emma tried to keep up with them but she lost them for a moment. That is until she heard a gunshot coming from the building to her right. She got there just in time to see not only one, but two clowns beating the heck out of Sam.

"Hey, you ugly… face!" Emma already had her knife out and ready to strike.

The taller clown that was holding Sam from behind only laughed while the other one came at her. She sliced him open at the belly. Or at least she thought she did. The only thing that came out was glitter, though. "What?"

"They're not real, Emma!" Sam yelled from between two cars on the right where he was fighting the clown and failing miserably. "You can't kill them!"

"Great." The clown laughed on her face when she got in another slash, this time to his arm and more glitter was sprinkled on her. It made her sneeze and that's when the clown took the opportunity to punch her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Emma doubled over and tried to move out of the way when she saw the clown's intention to kick her in the face. But she was too slow. The clown at least got her on the shoulder instead. The knife flew out of her hand to somewhere to her left and she was now weaponless with a clown that couldn't be killed.

Emma wiped the blood from her mouth as she lay on the floor and kicked her legs out to stand up. Taking a defensive stance, she made a c'mere gesture to the laughing clown. "Let's see what else you got, ugly face."

With two consecutive punches to the face and a kick to the stomach, both powerful enough that if the thing had been human it would be dead, the clown went sprawling a couple of feet away. Emma didn't miss any time and went to help Sam who had just been headbutted. She pulled back the clown by the neck of his shirt and also sent him flying across the room where he landed on the windshield of the truck with a loud thud. What annoyed her was that it kept laughing. That creepy, maniac laugh.

"I hope Dean has this under control." Sam said from beside her. "Or else…" He didn't get to finish because just then the shorter clown whirled him around and sprayed him with something white that came out of a flower on his chest, instantly getting the upper hand as Sam struggled to see again. Some of it landed on her clothes and soaked her, too.

Pissed off, she took a step closer to kick his butt back to the nearest circus, but the clown turned to her with a gun in his hand. The clown began to close in on her and so for every step he took she retreated. Tall came from out of nowhere and kicked her in the face, making her stumble on something and fall down on her butt. "Point that thing somewhere else, Shorty."

The clown giggled and shook its head. Emma took that opportunity to try to get up but a gunshot rang out, startling her and stopping her. Smoke was coming out of the gun that Shorty held and it was still pointed at her. Looking down at her own shirt, Emma noticed the red stain on it that seemed to be growing bigger and bigger right in the middle of Hello Kitty's eyes. "Crap, I just bought this." She murmured and fell backwards, hitting her head on something.

"Emma!" She heard Sam scream.

But all Emma could see was the clown approaching her slowly as he pinched his nose and the most annoying sound rang out. The gun was still pointed at her, now at her head and Emma couldn't help but let out a hysterical laugh herself. So this is what it came down to for her. Death at the hands of a freaking clown. That was the last thing she saw before everything went black.

/

Dean knew that he didn't have much time if he wanted to save both Emma and Sam. Howard's plan was already in motion it seemed and he already had a plan but without time…

"Well, hey, these are, uh, really nice dolls." Dean picked up a Plucky's figurine and pretended to inspect it. "Did you… paint them yourself?" Howard didn't respond, he was looking at Dean like he just grew another head or suddenly started dancing Macarena. The Plucky looked awful, ugly and… smiley. It was creepy. "Oh, uh, friggin' Plucky."

That got a reaction out of Howard and Dean had his answer. "Plucky helps kids." He quickly said in a whiny voice and Dean wanted nothing more than rip his friggin' head off right then and there. But he couldn't, yet. "It's all I ever wanted to do. And when the management slot opened up…" Howard shut his mouth and frowned, as if the fact that he hadn't been chosen was still a puzzle to him. "but they passed me over!"

"Shocker," Dean said sarcastically looking at the clown doll wondering why in the hell anyone would ever bother with this clown who was ugly.

"I told them, no one cares more than me, but suits never listen." Dean reached back and pretended to put the doll down, instead he put it in his back pocket, saving it for later. "So I'm doing it my way."

"Let me get this straight." Dean said, sort of amused at the guy's idiotic logic. "You didn't get the good parking space, so you start dropping bodies?"

"Those parents were horrible! They deserved what they got."

"Some guy hits on the babysitter and all of a suddenly he's the world's worst dad?" Ha, this dude clearly didn't know dysfunctional. That was nothing.

"A good parent puts his kids first." And Dean couldn't agree more but… oh, hell. _Emma_, he thought as realization hit him square on the face.

When he first found out about Ben and thought that he could be his son, Dean hadn't been more scared or thrilled in his entire life. Thrilled because, hey, he was a dad and Ben was a great kid. Scared, though, because he'd never been there for him and it was almost like abandonment even if he hadn't had any idea of his existence. Dean thought of himself as the worst dad ever. And now that he had a daughter, his own blood, and Dean was acting no better than the people that Howard was killing. He'd neglected and almost ignored Emma the entire time she was with him like he always did with stuff he couldn't deal with. No wonder she wanted out as soon as possible.

Dean stepped closer to Howard despite being held at gun point. "A little girl watching her dad get ganked by the monster in her closet is putting her first?" _Or having her own dad ignore and practically call her a monster wordlessly?_ Dean had really screwed up, too.

The gun in Howard's hand shook the closer Dean got. "In the long run, they'll be better off."

"You think so?" he doubted it.

"I would have been!" And there was the million dollar answer. He turned to look at the pictures taped to the wall, his gaze falling on the one with the kid drowning and the birthday party one with two kids. "So, your brother. What happened to him?"

"It's not my fault, it's theirs!"

"Looks to me like he drowned." Dean said.

"They let him die." Howard murmured, pain in his voice but Dean couldn't allow himself to feel bad for the poor bastard. It wasn't his fault that he drowned, or that he had irresponsible parents, but he'd been the one doing all the hoodoo crap that left two children without their parents.

Dean walked over to the wall and ripped one of the drawings, holding it up for Howard to see as he made his way back with small, careful steps. "I bet you still have nightmares." If there was something he was good at, it was psychological damage. He deserved a freaking prize for that. "In fact, I bet you haven't been in the water since."

"Shut up!"

In that moment, Dean decided to act, and fast. "Because you're afraid." He took out the Plucky ugly ass clown and dumped it on the fire along with the drawing and watched as it caught fire.

Howard watched with horror as the thing burned, too. "No!" He tried to pull it out of the fire, but it was too late for him. Knowing that things were about to get ugly, Dean launched himself off to one side and that's when Howard started to fire at him. None of the bullets hit him, thankfully, they reached a little boy that appeared out of nowhere between him and Howard. It was the same boy from the birthday picture, except that this version of him was dripping wet and didn't look so happy.

As the boy advanced on Howard, Howard tried to apologize but nothing that he said even fazed the boy. He reached out and touched Howard's hand that was holding the gun, bringing him to his knees gasping as water poured out of his mouth like a faucet. Dean was now standing up and could only watch with horror as Howard drowned and fell to the floor dead. The boy disappearing at the same time.

It was over.

/

Emma came awake with a headache and a freaking wound on her stomach inflicted by that stupid clown. Surprised that she wasn't dead, Emma sat up only to grunt in pain and fall backwards on the backseat of a car.

"Good, you're awake." Sam said from the front seat.

"Sam, you're alive."

Sam chuckled. "Barely, yes."

Ignoring the pain in her abdomen and clutching at the wound to stop the bleeding, Emma finally sat up. "Where's Dean?"

"Dean's fine, I just got off the phone with him and he's waiting for us at… Plucky's."

Emma nodded absentmindedly. She looked down at her abdomen and noticed that the bleeding had slowed down, all of it absorbed by the gauze that was over it. It hurt, but Emma was able to embrace the pain and draw force from it. As an Amazon, pain was part of her life.

"How are you feeling?" Sam suddenly asked sounding awkward.

"I'm fine, nothing I can't deal with." She looked up and met Sam's gaze on the rearview mirror to assure him. "It will need stitches, though. And you better take the bullet out quickly. I don't like the idea of living with a bullet inside me."

Sam's eyes widened. "It's already healing?"

"Yes. By tomorrow I'll probably be back to normal."

Sam took a left and Emma was able to make out Dean's form in the distance leaning against a car. She let out a sigh of relief, somehow feeling lots better as if that man standing there would really give a crap about her. Oh, he cared. But not like a father would care for his daughter. At most he was probably helping her to alleviate some of his guilt.

Emma watched as Sam got out of the car and talked to Dean. They laughed a little bit but Dean sobered up pretty quick. She opened the door on her side but before she could even do so much as move, Dean was there picking her up in his arms. His expression was a mixture between anger and frustration. Why in the world was he mad now?

"What the hell happened, Sam?" He asked gruffly.

"Uh, one of the clowns must have picked up my gun and shot her."

"I'm right here!" Emma said.

Dean looked down at her and his expression softened. "I'm sorry, Emma."

Emma frowned. "For what?"

"For… everything."

He placed her inside the other car and closed the door. Outside, he was talking to Sam loud enough that she could hear, too.

"Ok, tell me everything." Dean hissed. "How in the hell could you let them shoot her?"

Sam's posture was rigid and he didn't look happy at all. "Oh, I'm sorry but I was getting my own ass kicked to look out for much. Sorry if I thought that an Amazon could take care of herself." Emma was feeling a little insulted now. Of course she could take care of herself but she made the grave mistake of underestimating her opponent. A mistake that she would never make again. Apparently, clowns could kill.

Dean seemed to be about to explode and he opened his mouth to probably yell back. At the last moment he thought better about it and took a deep breath to calm himself. "Sammy… she could have been killed." He said slowly, a hint of something almost like pain in his voice. "She's not an Amazon, ok? She's just a girl right now. A badass, yeah, but still a girl."

"I—I hadn't considered that." Well point to Sam for taking her seriously.

"Hey, guys!" Emma made sure to yell loud enough for them to hear her. Dean bent down to look in through the window with his eyebrows raised. "I'm sure you're having a nice chat out there but I'd really appreciate it if I could get a first aid kit."

Dean popped the trunk open and came back with the first aid kit. He opened the back door and told Emma to scoot over. "Hey, I can do it myself." Emma tried to protest. "It's not a big deal" Inside, though, Emma was feeling a little weird. A warm feeling was spreading through her when Dean ignored her comment and pulled up her shirt to take out the bullet and stitch her up. The procedure barely even stung her but she couldn't take her eyes off Dean, her father, who seemed to want to help her now. Emma knew that the circumstances in which she was conceived weren't normal, yet here was Dean helping her. Could it be possible that he could actually feel something for her like fatherly love and not just pity her? Emma didn't know a lot of things about human behavior, everything she'd learned so far came from watching TV and listening to Sam and Dean, but she wanted it all.

"You're wrong." Emma whispered as Dean put a new gauze on top of her wound.

Dean looked up at her face and smiled a little. "I'm usually wrong about a lot of things, but what exactly are we talking about here?"

Emma gathered up some courage and hoping that she wouldn't make a fool of herself, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Dean's neck in an embrace that she didn't know she needed until that moment. To her surprise, Dean didn't hesitate to wrap his own arms around her and hugged her tight. "You are a good man… Dean." Emma replied, thinking best to say it like this. "I know you now and I can say that you really are a good man, don't doubt it."

/

As Dean drove away from Kansas with Emma in the backseat sleeping, he couldn't stop thinking about what she'd said to him. Dean wasn't stupid, he knew that hunting helped people. But he'd never considered himself as an actual good person. His idea of a good time was booze and women, something he'd recently sworn off due to the circumstances. One kid was enough.

But Dean had to admit that having Emma say something like that was nice. For some reason Dean swelled up with pride like a stupid balloon when he heard her say that. Whether Dean admitted it or not, Emma was his daughter and he had to protect her until his last breath. There was no doubt in his mind that the Amazons were probably laying low but keeping an eye out for them. So Emma needed him.

He could still see that broken girl that knocked on his hotel door saying that she would kill him. Even then Dean hadn't believed it. There was no trace of malice in those green eyes of hers, no evilness. As a hunter, Dean had seen a lot of that over the years in many people. Sometimes even in himself. But not in Emma. Despite whatever she went through at the hands of the Amazons, she remained good.

And so Dean promised himself that he'd keep her that way no matter what. Soon, he'd let her go and have a chance at the normal life she wanted, away from him so nothing could hurt her. It was the only way. Dean wouldn't make the same mistake his own father did. A life on the road was no life for someone so innocent and precious as Emma where she could get killed by anything. Tonight was proof of that. Dean wouldn't put his own baggage on her shoulders.

If it was the last thing he did, Dean would get her to safety.

**So, what do y'all think? Good? Please review! **


	6. Repo Man

**Repo Man**

Just like she said, Emma was like new by the next afternoon and the stitches came off. Neither Dean nor Emma spoke about what was said in the car the night before, only shared a smile the next morning when they stopped to have breakfast at a no-name diner after checking out of the motel. Sam looked a bit confused with the way they acted, more relaxed and ok with each other's presence. In Emma's opinion it was great that things weren't so tense between them anymore.

"Ok, so where to next, Sammy?" Dean asked over a plate of eggs and bacon that he was digging into with gusto.

Next to him Emma also looked up at Sam with a questioning gaze. "Well," Sam said, "I'd like to check out Idaho." Like the Geek he was, Dean's words not Emma's, Sam already had his computer out and booted up to look for their next job.

"Idaho?" _It's a funny name for a place_, Emma thought.

Sam's eyes narrowed a bit. "You have no idea where or what that is, do you?"

Emma shook her hear reluctantly. She hated not knowing things.

"OK," Sam typed something on his computer and turned it around for Emma to see. It was a picture of the U.S. if Emma wasn't mistaken with lots of dots and lines. "This is the U.S. You see the different shapes? Well, those are states." He pointed near the middle of the map a little to the right to a squared state. "We're right here, Kansas. Or the outskirts of it." His finger moved up the screen to left hand corner of the country. "And this is Idaho, where we're going." Emma nodded.

"So it's not too far?"

"It's about a two day drive." Sam replied.

"Baby coulda made it in less than that." Dean grumbled, which made Sam roll his eyes.

"We're not driving straight over there, Dean." He turned to computer back towards himself and Emma went back to eating her hamburger. Dean hadn't been lying when he said that it was delicious. "I want to sleep more than three or four hours and Emma isn't used to long hours in a car."

Sam never ceased to amaze Emma. One moment he was giving her the cold shoulder and stink eye, and the next he was looking out for her. He seriously needed to stick to either hot or cold.

As predicted by Sam, it took them over two days to get to Whatever, Idaho. They stopped once to spend the night in a seedy motel room and that was it, the rest of the stops weren't for more than about ten minutes to pick up some food and water. In Idaho, Sam said that they didn't have much money left and so Dean rented a less than sanitary room.

Emma turned on the light inside the room and looked around. The walls were an ugly yellow that had seen better days and, once again, there were only two beds. If it wasn't for the fact that Emma was tired and sore from spending so much time inside the car, she would have asked for the floor this time. It sure as heck looked a lot more appealing than the beds.

Just then Dean's phone rang, he looked at it and back up at Sam. "'Classified Server?' Got to be Devereaux, right?" He hit answer and put the phone to his ear.

Exhausted, Emma curled up on her side on the middle of one of the beds and decided to take a nap or something. She could hear Dean talking on the phone and some rustling that Sam was making with his duffel bag.

"Frank…." Dean was saying.

When it became obvious that she couldn't sleep, Emma opened her eyes and watched Sam Dean move around. It was better than just laying there like a moron all bored. Sam had a bunch of papers laid out on top of his own bed and was looking through them but he was acting strange. From time to time he would glance up, not at Dean, but at the far wall at the end of the room. Emma glanced that way and saw nothing but green grime, which made her want to gag. It was disgusting. The owner seriously needed to take care of the rooms better.

Emma glanced back at Sam noticing that he was pressing hard on his left palm with his right thumb just like she'd seen him do the other night. H looked like a crazy dude. So far, Emma had no theories. She knew that he didn't drink too much, not like Dean that took out that flask from his jacket pocket from time to time. He also ate what seemed to be healthy rabbit food, as Dean put it. So what in the heck could it be?

"What do you mean you can't find him?" Dean was saying to the phone as he opened his duffel. "It's Dick Roman. Turn on CNN. Didn't you see him at that, uh, press conference in Phoenix? The bastard's everywhere… You sure..? No, I-I- don't…" He began to pace around the room looking frustrated as Sam kept laying out more folders on his bed. "I don't care that they've infiltrated the luxury boat industry, Frank! Great. Call Kanye." And he hung up, looking more riled up than Emma had seen him all day.

Emma crept closer to the other bed to look at the folders. They seemed to be crime scene photos of two women covered in blood. She scrunched up her face in disgust. "Is this like that TV show, uh, Law & Order?" She asked.

Dean stared at her like she'd grown a second head before nodding. "Sure, if demons are the killers in that show, then, yes. Just like that."

"Ok, same age, hair color and body type." Sam was saying. "The ritual mutilations line up exactly."

Dean looked up at Sam with a frown. "Who down there would've let out that demon out of the can? He squealed on his superiors. We made sure of that. I mean, he should be down until, uh, trumpet day."

"But two women were killed in the last two weeks," Sam reasoned, picking up a particular gruesome picture and showing it to Dean who made a face and looked away. "same parts missing. I mean, same old hunting grounds, even."

"Could be a copy cat." Emma piped in. "A serial killer who's imitating the demon's behavior and practices."

"What have you been watching, Emma?" Dean asked, a little amazed and annoyed.

Emma crossed her arms over her chest. "It's called Law & Order. A good show. I'm just trying to help. You're the one saying that the demon shouldn't be out of hell so soon. I take it that 'trumpet day'," she made air quotes, "isn't any time soon, whatever that means."

Sam smirked. "She's got a point."

Dean waved his arms around. "Could be, whatever. But let's just take a swing at it just in case." Then his tone changed so suddenly from playful to serious. "You know it's all about the Leviathans now, right? They're the ones we need to be hunting. Those are evil sons of bitches."

"Yeah, but, no—" Dean raised an eyebrow and Sam sighed. "I mean, not right now. This one's ours, Dean. It's unfinished business, apparently."

Since it was so late, they decided to go to sleep and check things out in the morning. Emma insisted Sam take the bed, he looked like the dead with dark rings under his eyes and the fact that he seemed to see things she didn't was starting to worry her. Dean seemed to notice, too, sometimes but since he didn't do or say anything Emma thought for it to be normal. Maybe Sam was just that messed up. After all, everyone had to have scars, right? Reluctantly, he agreed and she was about to lay down on the floor between the two beds when Dean intervened and told her to take his bed. Emma didn't want to sleep on the dirty floor but Sam and Dean were the ones that did the heavy work, they deserved to sleep. Despite her protests, Dean got his way and she got his bed.

Still, Emma couldn't go to sleep right away. Sam and Dean were out as soon as they heads hit their pillows but sleep just eluded her. To entertain herself for a little while, she turned on the tv and watched another marathon of Law & Order. When she got bored with it, she just browsed through the channels occasionally stopping to listen to the news. The more she knew about the world, the better. Finalley, she fell asleep at around two only to be woke up at around five AM, by the radio that was tuned in with the police. She groaned in pain as the lamp was turned on by Sam and, hurt her eyes.

An hour later they were walking towards the crime scenes. All three of them were dressed as Feds and holding a cup of coffee. Emma had the biggest, that stuff was really good and tasty. She'd asked Dean what was in it and, looking at her weird, replied that it was only black coffee. As per Dean's intructions she'd added two of sugar and the taste improved even more. Now, Sam was calling her caffeine addicted. After holding up their badges, an officer lifted the 'Do Not Cross' line for them and they ducked under.

"Thanks." Emma and Sam said at the same time.

"You know, every time we do this, I wonder if today's the day." Dean was saying, his voice gruffer than usual. He still sounded tired, they'd only gotten a few hours of sleep last night. "We walk up, flash our tin to a bunch of chompers pretending to be policemen."

Sam sighed. "I hear you."

Someone grabbed Sam by the shoulder from behind and Sam turned around to face him. Emma was ready to attack if necessary, but Dean held her back and shook his head.

"Thought you guys might show up." It was a short, balding man that was smiling up at Sam like he knew him. "It's the drummer boys: Agents, uh, Bonham and…" He turned to Dean. "Watts, right?" Then his gaze fell on Emma next to Dean and he frowned. "Plus one, I see."

"Agent Jett." Emma replied, shaking hands with the man.

"Uh, it's a pleasure to see you again, Detective…" Sam trailed off and Emma didn't fail to notice the way his eyes briefly flickered behind the Detective. "Pardon me. Uh, what was it, Detective…"

The Detective waved it off, still smiling. "Oh, no problem—Detective Sutton." And they shook hands.

"Sutton, yeah." Dean said and he, too, shook hands. "Hi."

Meanwhile, Emma watched a man taking a picture of the broken glass in the back of the truck near the victim's body. It looked bloody.

"Sad to say, case looks to be open again." Sutton led them closer to the van.

"Are you sure?" Dean asked. He'd probably been hoping it was nothing so he could go back to hunting… uh, Leviathans as he called them.

Sutton nodded. "Same tools and cuts." He shook his head. "Same crazy."

Emma crouched low to take a better look of the victim and noticed the cuts on the woman's face, which made her face almost unrecognizable. Her left hand was just as bad if not worse, her pinky and part of her palm were missing. Sam walked past her toward the front of the vehicle and Emma got up to see what else they'd found. This whole FBI thing was almost exciting, just like on TV. Except that, unlike on TV, that was a real body. That lessened her enthusiasm.

"Makes sense," Sutton continued. "I mean we didn't catch the critter last time, did we?"

"And no suspects?" Emma asked. She'd heard Benson say something like that, too. She figured that real FBI asked similar questions.

Sutton shook his head. "Same as before. Very through."

"Thank you, Detective." Dean told him, still looking down at the victim.

"Any time,"

Sam came back and they looked at the vehicle, he's the one that noticed some yellow powder. "Hey," He touched the yellow powder with a finger and smelled it, making a face. "Sulfur."

"Damn it." Dean swore. "Better go check on Havelock"

"Who's Havelock?" Emma asked in the car.

"A lady who helped us last time." Dean said over his shoulder. "She might be in danger if the demon is back."

/

Sam and Dean lead her to a building where they met a lady in her forties or so. Inside, a large sign read 'Wiccan's Webb' with what Emma realized was a devil's trap between the two words.

"This is it." The lady said, looking around.

"Wiccanswebb dot com." Sam said incredulously.

Nora nodded. "Internet mail order. White magic only—herbs and talismans." She opened another set of doors to another room and Emma looked at Dean for an explanation on the recently painted Devil's Trap on the floor. Dean shrugged.

"You sure about that?" Sam asked and Emma was beginning to question this lady's intentions.

Nora looked down, ignoring Sam's question and walked around the symbol on the floor. "Careful, it's still drying." She looked back up but didn't meet anyone's eyes. "I have a friend at the sheriff's office. I know about all the new murders. I'm doing what I can to protect myself." Oh, and now she was justifying herself. Not a good sign.

Emma walked around the Devil's Trap, eyeing it carefully and looking for any mistakes but it was drawn perfectly. Dean had already taught her how to draw one when they stopped at the motel the other day and now Emma could draw one from memory. It was easy. She looked back to the woman who was now behind a desk and giving Sam some papers. "Wow, uh, these are— these are good."

Nora nodded, very serious. "Thanks. I've got an affinity. But back then," she shuddered. "that night in that farmhouse, I was in over my head. I know that now, believe me. I will leave all that to the pros." Her eyes settled briefly on Emma and she raised an eyebrow. The lady, embarrassed for getting caught staring, quickly looked back at Sam.

Dean must have seen that because he frowned but still addressed the lady. "Well, you helped track it down. I mean, it was some solid leg work."

"When it came down to it, all I really knew was somebody who knew somebody who knew the right number to call. And your number is not working by the way."

Sam shared a look with Dean. "Right, we, uh, we've had some technical difficulties—phone issues." He smiled nervously. "So you, uh, haven't had any contact?"

"With the demon?" She sounded genuinely horrified. "No, thank God. I have one or two things to finish in town, and then I'm leaving."

"Good choice." Emma told her innocently but you would have thought she called her something bad if the woman's reaction was anything to go by. Her eyes widened but she quickly composed herself and managed a shaky smile.

"Have you found Jeffery yet?" The woman suddenly asked.

"Who?" Dean asked.

"The man who the demon possessed." Nora clarified looking between Sam and Dean, expecting a reaction. "The one you almost beat to death?"

Emma looked at Dean for an explanation. They'd already explained things to her about how they got information out of the demon and exorcized him afterwards, but didn't mention that the victim was alive. "Yeah, Jeffrey." Dean said somehow awkwardly. "That poor bastard."

"Some demons tend to be sentimental, don't they? Always go back to the same host if they can."

Sam looked at Dean and nodded. "It's a start."

/

Back at the motel, Emma was allowed first into the shower and then changed into something more comfortable, like a black and white flannel shirt over a black t-shirt and jeans with black boots. It was the middle of March and since they were up north, it was chilly. She didn't feel it as much but she humored Dean on that one. While she'd been in the shower, Sam had managed to track down this Jeffrey guy and knew that he'd be picking up a dog this afternoon. The plan was that Sam and Dean would make a noise in the alley to draw Jeffrey in and then Dean would hold him from behind at knife point while Sam stood ready to douse him with holy water if it was the demon.

"I object to that plan." Emma said.

Dean raised his eyebrows. "What exactly is it that doesn't agree with you, miss sunshine?"

Emma crossed her arms over her chest and made a face. Now he was just humoring her. "How about I hold him with my knife," she let the knife that she, literally, always kept up her sleeve slid down and held it tight. "and the two of you douse him." Sam had thankfully returned it to her the morning after she thought she lost it, polished and shiny.

That killed the so-so mood Dean had had going on. "Out of the question." He said getting up and walking up to her, as if his height would intimidate her. She was 5'10 last time she checked, not that shorter than him. "In fact, you're not even going with us."

"What?" she threw her arms up in the air. "Why not? I'm perfectly capable of handling a demon."

Dean shook his head. "No, Em. You don't. You know the drill, yes, but you haven't faced one yet. They're manipulative sons of bitches that will stop at nothing to inflict harm. And this particular one just happens to be a serial killer, too."

Emma scoffed. "Ok, _Dean_, I'm tired of this."

"Tired of what?"

"Tired of the fact that you're treating me like a child!"

Silence fell in the room. Sam looked between Emma and Dean with a panicked look and stood up to leave. Dean shot him a look and Sam sat back down, clearing his throat.

"Ok," Dean began, looking back at Emma. "You don't want to be treated like a child, then don't act like one, Emma. Admit that this isn't something you can handle so let _me_ handle it."

Emma opened her mouth and promptly closed it. Now that she thought about it, she'd been acting like child. As soon as she figured it out, that she was acting normal and all that, her anger went away "Oh! Oh! This is like in that TV show!" Dean looked at her like she grew a second head but Emma couldn't stop smiling. "This is normal, isn't it? I mean, the typical teenager yelling about unfair things and blah, blah, blah."

"Unbelievable." Dean murmured. "You seriously need to cut the TV."

Sam chuckled. "Are the two of you done fighting?"

"No," Emma replied. "I believe that this is the part where Dean starts laying out the rules again and grounds me. Then I tell him how unfair it all is and…"

"I'm not grounding you or anything." Dean interrupted. "You're too old for this. Hell, I'm too old for this."

"Well, then let me come with you."

"Just let her come with us, Dean." Sam said, rubbing his temples. "With one condition."

"What?" Emma narrowed her eyes.

"You watch and wait for our call to intervene."

"Okay." Emma agreed reluctantly.

/

Emma watched from behind a dumpster as the man practically waltzed into the alley where Sam and Dean cornered him and nearly gave him a heart attack. It was comical, really, which meant that the man, Jeffrey, wasn't a demon.

"So what do we do next?" Emma asked as she approached the guys.

Dean saw her and glared. "I told you to stay hidden!"

"No, you said to stay hidden _if_ he turned out to be a demon." Emma gave him a smile. "He isn't."

"What do you guys want from me?" Jeffrey interrupted, sounding every bit upset. His eyes moved frantically between all three of them and he was clutching at his dog like his life depended on it. "And why is she talking about a demon?"

Dean pointed a finger at her and mouthed, "We're not done yet." Then to Jeffrey he said, "Ok, so, the demon that rode your meatsuit might be back. Before you ask, yes, we exorcized him so we're just as confused as you are."

/

"Well, this is, uh…"

_A dump_, Emma thought. This guy's Jeffrey apartment was a dump. It was small, cluttered and ugly. It looked like it needed a paint job and perhaps a sanitization. Emma wondered how Sam could stand sitting on that chair looking all nice and comfy.

"I know what it is." Jeffrey replied defensively, taking a seat himself and petting his dog.

"Look, I know this must have been… uh, hard." Sam was saying when Emma noticed that he pressed down on his left hand. Ok, this was crazy. Emma had to find out what was going on. Was it some sort of nervous thing? But then, why did he keep glancing around sometimes as if he saw something?

Jeffrey shot him a look. "Just tell me what you want from me."

"Three women have been murdered over the past two weeks." Emma told him.

Jeffrey got frightened then and shook his head. "No, no."

"Same vic profiles, same forensics, crime scene dusted with sulfur." Dean checked them off the list with his fingers. "We've got to assume that it's him."

"Unless it's a copycat." Emma reminded him, which earned her a hard look from Dean.

Sam looked back at her. "It's not a copycat, Emma." Then turned back to Jeffrey. "We're sure it's him, ok? We're going to help you. So if he comes after you, we'll nail him just like we did last time."

Jeffrey didn't seem convinced but he nodded anyway. "What was her name?"

"What?" Dean asked, confused.

"The last one killed." Jeffrey clarified. "What was her name?"

"Anna Paxton." Emma supplied.

"Marjorie Willis. She's the next one on the list."

"List? What list?" Sam asked.

"The demon used to recite it all the time." Jeffrey focused on Sam. "Like a grocery list. He burned it in my head. The names of all the victims he was gonna kill."

This was beginning to sound like the supernatural version of the TV show she watched. "Can demons be serial killers?" Emma asked Dean who shook his head.

"Demons aren't usually into the obsessive serial killer crap." He explained absentmindedly to Emma. "They're just all around evil. Why would he do this?" Dean looked at Sam for answers but he just shrugged, probably as perplexed as the rest.

"He said it was his job."

Someone knocked on the door, startling Emma into taking out her knife and turning around to fight. Jeffrey stood up to answer the door but hesitated when he saw the knife.

Dean got up, too and placed his hand on top of hers. "Put that away!" He hissed.

Reluctantly, Emma did and watched Jeffrey open the door, briefly talking to someone before closing it and coming back to the couch. "What's wrong with you?" He asked her.

Emma rolled her eyes and tucked the knife back into her sleeve. "Your demon."

This time it was Sam who told her to tone it down with a glare of his own. He was all empathetic and crap when he turned back to Jeffrey, of course. "Uh, Jeffrey. I'm sorry, she's… nervous. Anyways, I'm gonna go find Marjorie Willis and keep her on watch, okay?"

Jeffrey looked alarmed.

"Don't worry." Dean assured him. "I'm gonna stay here just in case."

Sam got up to leave and grabbed Emma by the arm on his way out. "Hey, what are you doing?" She asked him.

"You're coming with me."

Emma shook him off and followed him grudgingly. She'd wanted to stay.

/

"This is a library?" Emma asked.

"Yes," Sam hissed and motioned for her to be quiet.

A woman smiled at Sam as she walked by them pushing a trolley with books and Sam stared after her with a frown. Once again, Sam appeared distracted and Emma vowed to come to the bottom of it.

"That's her?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah. Follow me." They sat down at a table where Sam could watch the woman without any problems and Emma sat down next to him. "Now, we watch and wait."

Everything was alright for a while. The woman was just sitting there in front of a computer, typing away. Emma was getting bored when she noticed Sam fidgeting next to her. Without turning to look at him, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. Sam kept moving from side to side, as if he was trying to avoid something that was blocking his view but there was nothing there. The woman was right on his line of sight.

Weird.

It ended with Sam rolling his eyes and finally settling down on a comfortable position with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Hey, Sam." Emma asked.

"Yeah?"

"Is there a ghost here or something?" She asked quietly, remembering that he didn't want her talking loud for some reason.

Sam stared straight ahead for a moment, shoulders tense and his mouth set in a straight line. He was definitely upset. "No, why?"

Emma shrugged. "Nothing, just asking. There must be a reason why you've been acting so strange lately." Strange didn't even begin to describe it but he might get offended if she mentioned it.

"I'm alright," Sam replied through gritted teeth. "there's nothing wrong with me. In fact, I thought we agreed you wouldn't mention it anymore."

"I didn't sign a contract, Sam." She reminded him. "I can go and tell Dean whenever and right now looks like a pretty good time to do so. You're freaking me out with this staring-all-over-the-place crap." It was then that Emma noticed that he was no longer paying any attention to her. He was looking at the people two tables over who were quietly reading. But Sam had this expression on his face, like he was seeing something and it wasn't pretty. "Sam?" No response. Desperate, and more than a little freaked out, she grabbed his hand that was lying on the table and tried pressing her thumb on his palm.

Sam jumped and pulled his hand back with a wince. "Wh—what, are you trying to break my hand?"

Emma stared at him for a moment, trying to figure him out. "Snap out of it and start talking."

Sam shook his head and picked up the case files, skimming through them. But Emma knew he was just stalling. No way was he actually paying any attention to it. "I don't want to talk about it, now. We have a job to do."

Just then Marjorie walked by them heading for the back of the library. Emma stared after her and so she noticed the suspicious-looking man in a black jacket heading in the same direction. She elbowed Sam to get his attention, pointing at the girl with her chin. Sam followed her line of sight and nodded, already getting up. "Stay here." He told her when she tried to follow him.

Emma did so only because she was sure that she'd be able to help if it came down to it. Regardless, she was getting tired of being kept out of the action most of the time. Thankfully, Sam came back seconds later with a sour look and Emma relaxed. Shaking his head, he sat back down.

"So?" Emma prompted.

"You don't want to know." Sam ran a hand down his face and yawned. Then he picked the forensic papers again and read.

"Give me this, you clearly can't find anything." Emma proposed and took the papers from him. Good thing she knew how to read, too. Not every girl in her tribe did. She still kept an eye on Sam, though and noticed when he dialed someone who didn't pick up.

The papers didn't reveal anything knew, though. There were a lot of words that she didn't understand from it and she wasn't surprised. At least she was able to do something, though, which was saying something. With Dean acting all protective of her when it came to the demon, Emma hadn't done much this time and she was feeling useless. Dean should give her some credit, though. Their first hunt a couple of days ago went just fine. Quite easy even. So why was Dean suddenly acting like a real parent?

Suddenly, Sam snatched the papers from her hands and skimmed through them until he got to the drug reports and his eyes widened. "Emma, there were traces of tranquilizers in each of the victims." At her blank look, he went on. "They're drugs to make you go to sleep. Why would a demon do this when he could easily restrain a woman?" Even as he spoke he'd been dialing again but no one answered. "Dammit, Dean!"

"Dean…" Emma felt like someone had punched her in the gut when she realized what Sam was implying. No, Dean couldn't be… No!

Sam gathered the papers and suddenly yelled, "Shut up!" drawing attention from a few people around them. Confused, Emma just ran after him without saying anything else.

They drove to Jeffrey's apartment to investigate a bit more. Sam ended up having to pick up the lock and inside they searched through the place. Emma tore through everything but found nothing and so she grew more and more scared as minutes passed by.

"I found something!" Sam said and Emma was quickly at his side. Over his shoulder, Emma saw a bunch of old papers with writings written on another language. "So? I don't understand, Sam! I barely read and speak English, this isn't my thing!" Yes, she realized that she was yelling and was probably only making things worse, but the anxiety was building up inside of her. Also, her eyes kept changing if Sam's wary look was anything to go by.

/

"Sam, what in the hell are we waiting for?"

Sam kept pacing back and forth, trying to make sense of stuff, completely ignoring Emma who was just about to walk up to him and rip his throat out if that's what it took to get him to do something. Emma couldn't stop thinking about the danger that Dean could be in right that moment, which only served to make her even more nervous. Because what if something bad happened to Dean? Emma would be all alone. No tribe. No family. Nothing. Who would look out for her? Dean's tendency to be difficult about Emma's hunting was kind of annoying but it was nice that he cared.

"A demon summoning—why?" Sam muttered but Emma heard him and opened her mouth to ask what he meant when she realized that he wasn't even talking to her. He was staring ahead as if someone was there but it was just her and Sam there. "Hey, what do you mean?"

"Sam?" Emma said, tentatively walking towards him.

He looked her way so suddenly that Emma jumped a little. "I know this handwriting,"

/

Sam took her back to Nora's store and told her to wait in the car, that he wouldn't be long. No matter how much Emma begged for an explanation, Sam didn't give her one and even threatened to handcuff her if she didn't stay put. Emma waited in the car long enough for him to get to the store and then some before following him. Like hell that she'd stay in the car.

Emma was good with guns, her aim was perfect, so she drew a gun that she took from the glove compartment and approached Nora's office where she could hear some yelling. It was better to stay as quiet as possible just in case Sam was in trouble. She doubted it, but it was better to be careful.

"Everything's happening the way he said it," Nora was saying sounding hysterical. "the way he planned it."

"What plan?!" At Sam's yell, Emma tightened her hold on the gun but still didn't go in. Everything seemed to be under control. From where she was, she could see that things hadn't gotten violent. Besides, she was getting info.

"You can't help—you can't change it." Nora sat down on the sofa and Sam's hands clenched at his sides. The paper he was holding crumpling under his fingertips from the force. Wow, Sam was beginning to look just like he did the other night when he was having his little breakdown. Not good.

With a deep breath, Sam tried to reason again. "Nora," His voice was straining, he was really trying to calm down. "tell me what is going on." When the woman still didn't cooperate, Sam crouched down and spoke fiercely to Nora's face. "Nora, listen to me! Whatever it is, you should be a lot more scared of me right now because I'm two inches away from you, and I can make you talk. Do you understand me?"

Oh, so the woman did know where Dean might be. Tired of all the rambling, Emma barged in, putting the gun away in the back of her jeans. Nora suddenly began to cry and covered her face.

Sam got up and directed his anger at her. "Emma, I told you to stay in the car, dammit!"

Emma didn't listen to him. She walked past him and grabbed the woman by the neck, holding her up with her feet a couple inches off the floor. This caused her to cry harder and even try to scratch at Emma's hands to let her go. "You better tell me what in the hell is really going on or I will snap your neck like a twig you pathetic little human." Emma snarled, letting her eyes change to show that she wasn't playing around.

"Emma, let her go!" Sam said from behind her, though he didn't make a move to attack her or anything. Good.

Since the woman was beginning to look a little blue in the face, Emma decided to let her go. Nora fell back on the sofa clutching at her neck and choking on her own tears. In other circumstances Emma might have felt a little bad, but right now it was important to find Dean. "It's my son. He has my son!"

"I don't give a damn if he has your son." Emma also got real up-close to her face, eyes still red. "Right now the demon has my father and I'm getting him back no matter what."

Behind her, Sam was outraged. "What were you thinking? I mean, why would you help bring back a demon in the first place?"

Nora glared at Emma but answered to Sam. "Not the demon, Jeffrey!"

"Jeffrey?" Sam asked.

"That pathetic excuse of a guy?" Emma asked, seething. She got up and turned back, noting Sam leaning against a desk cradling his head. Thinking that it was best to keep Sam from getting even more stressed at the sight of her eyes, she allowed them to go back to normal.

"I kept tabs on Jeffrey after the exorcism." Nora began explaining, still crying, which annoyed Emma. "I even sent him care packages in the hospital, but he never responded. And then, not long ago, he came to me." She cleared her throat and wiped a few tears from her face. The more she talked, the more Emma wanted to strangle her. That woman was stupid. "He seemed healthy, put together, except he wanted to know if there was a way to summon the demon back. He said he'd been doing research, mostly nonsense, but he was convinced it was possible."

"I sent him away," Nora continued to tell Sam. "I told him to get some more help. The next day… he called me and put my son on the phone. He'd taken him from his dorm room." She got up from the couch and went behind the desk. Emma took a step closer just in case she decided to play funny. "I gave him everything—the ritual, the sigils. But he kept my boy." Nora took out a wooden box out of a drawer and opened it. "And then he sent me this." Inside, there was a bloody ear.

"You're really stupid," Emma told her and the woman glared at her, rubbing her neck.

"I did what I had to do!"

Emma snorted. "And that got women killed." She shot back.

Ignoring Emma, Nora turned back to Sam, probably seeking some sympathy. "My baby's ear. He cut it off because the ritual didn't work."

"Well… that demon gave up some serious state secrets—would've gone into big lockdown in hell. Not easy to bring him back up" Sam stated.

"Jeffrey didn't care! He told me to find out what went wrong or else. Finally, I found a summoning spell that would work for sure." Nora handed Sam a book. "That's when he said I had another job to do." She gulped as her eyes flickered over at Emma with fear. Oh, this was not going to be good. "Jeffrey told me to send you to him. He left a trail of bodies to make sure of it."

Sam glanced down at the book, read a little of it and then glanced back up confused. "Blood of the exorcist?"

"Strongest summoning I've ever seen. Requires the blood of the exorcist who banished him—"

"Let me guess," Emma said, "Dean?"

Nora nodded. "It was all part of Jeffrey's plan."

Sam turned the book around and placed it on front of Nora. "Well… new plan. Track spell—Bavarian, Egyptian. I don't care—dealer's choice. Use the flesh of the body to find the body and Dean." When Nora hesitated, Sam raised his voice. "Do you want the ear or the kid?!" His eyes flickered briefly to something over Emma's shoulder and then stepped back to let Nora work.

"And you better not be lying to us." Emma warned her. "You play us and I kill you with my bare hands."

"That's enough, Emma." Sam told her his gaze settling over her.

Emma walked around the desk and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him to the other room to talk to him. "What is wrong with you? You keep getting distracted by something that only you can see. Don't you think you're a little too old for imaginary friends?"

Sam pushed her away. "That's none of your business."

"Oh it is. You know why? Because it's my butt on the line now."

"Shut up, Emma. You can't mention this. I'm fine."

Emma snorted. "You were talking to yourself, Sam. Not exactly a good sign." When he just looked down at her angrily, she decided to play dirty. "Tell me or I'll tell Dean and he won't be happy that you've been keeping things from him."

Sam closed the distance between them and grabbed her by the shoulders. "I like you, Emma. I really do. And I'm not going to hurt you because as twisted as the circumstances in which you were born were, you're still my family." His fingers dug into her shoulders but she didn't flinch. "However, that doesn't give you the right to meddle in my life and problems. Besides, who do you think Dean would get angrier at, me, or you?"

That made Emma angry. While he had a point, Emma didn't like the way he was handling things. "So what?" She replied, pushing him away none too gently, making him stumble. "It's not like we're actually building a relationship. I don't give a damn if any of you get mad at me. Dean on the other hand does care about you, Sam. Please tell me what's going on. I—I won't tell Dean, but just… let me help you." It was hard for her to say those words, but like he'd said, Dean would get angry. "I mean, does Dean even know about your problem?"

Sam looked really confused now. His features softened but he still remained silent. Then he said, "He knows. He doesn't know they're this… bad. But he knows." He took a deep breath and glanced briefly at the office where Nora was working on the tracking spell before glancing back. "It's a long story, Emma. Really long. We can't talk about it now. I promise to tell you later… if you keep quiet about it. The last thing I want is to keep worrying Dean."

"Dean is already worried." Emma told him. "He's always worrying about you it seems." Bitterness seeped into her voice and she tried to squelch that feeling right away. She had no right to it. At the end of the day, Dean was Sam's and Emma was nothing more than an unexpected inconvenience that Dean now had to take care of.

Sam let out a humorless laugh. "He's done that since we were kids. Hell, Dean practically raised me. But lately…" He shook his head regrettably. "lately Dean's been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Two of our friends died, and Dean just can't get over it."

"It's ready!" Nora yelled from the office.

"We'll talk later." Emma reminded him, pointing a finger at him.

/

Dean gritted his teeth as Jeffrey walked behind him with a freaking knife and a bowl. He had a pretty good idea what that was for and Dean didn't like it at all. Oh, how he wanted to bash Jeffrey's head into the concrete. That little lying son of a bitch. When the knife sliced his arm near the ropes that were binding his wrists, Dean thought about moving and seeing if perhaps the knife also cut the bindings. At the last second, though, Dean decided not to do it. He could definitely cut some major vein and bleed out here.

"I like to think I know you pretty well," Jeffrey told him calmly.

"Yeah?" Dean asked sarcastically. "How do you figure?" The sound of his blood dripping into the bowl freaked him out knowing what it would be used for. It was like one of those slasher flims he made fun of.

Jeffrey came to stand in front of him after gathering the blood and said, "I watched you torture an innocent man to get out a demon. You guys talked a lot, showed a lot of character." He sighed regrettably. "God… you were so desperate to fix the world back then. It kills you that people keep getting hurt… and you just can't stop it. Or should I say… it's killed you, shouldn't I?"

At that, Dean struggled a little to get free, trying to ignore the way his heart beat faster at the mention of what happened to him when he couldn't do anything after finding Lilith… when those hellhounds used him as a chew toy before dragging his ass to hell where he marinated in evil for forty years. "Screw you."

Chuckling, Jeffrey walked over to the table with his blood where the altar was set up. "Hey, I was there." Using the knife, he began mixing everything. "I was depressed, Dean, because he was gone." Dean just clenched his jaw, trying to calm himself down. He had every right to get touchy-feely at the mention of what happened to him. "I was a wreck, an emotional shell. A drunk. I was suicidal."

Dean snorted. "I don't usually endorse suicide, but, man, what stopped you?" It sure as heck would have made things easier for him and Sam.

"It was Alan at the house."

Damn Alan. "You're kidding me."

"He's a really good rehab therapist." He spoke so casually, it made Dean sick. "Really helped me focus my goals…" Jeffrey took out the knife and cleaned it. "my attitude. I have to say, I really benefitted from the whole program. A life well-lived comes from the structured pursuit of meaningful happiness." Then began approaching Dean, still clutching the jar like it was the Holy Grail or something, holding the knife. "I realized I was nothing without my demon so I decided to bring him back." With a sigh he turned around. "I'll be right back."

Dean watched as the dog hopped down from a chair and began following Jeffrey to the other room.

"It's a bitch of a recipe." He said over his shoulder and Dean groaned, realizing what Jeffrey was planning and hoping to be wrong.

"No," When Jeffrey was out of sight, Dean could still see his shadow and saw him raise his arm, followed by the dog whimpering. "You sick son of a bitch." And then silence.

When Jeffrey came back, he was carrying the dog's heart, which he dropped into the bowl and then put on top of the fire. Dean's blood was then added and Jeffrey began chanting, causing the whole building to shake. As Jeffrey raised his arms and voice, Dean kept struggling uselessly. Nothing happened at first and for a moment Dean was relieved. The spell probably didn't work because the dimwit didn't pronounce something right or left out an ingredient. Yeah, no such luck.

Beside Dean, the kid awoke and his eyes were black. Well, the ritual worked. The demon broke free from the chains and took the tape off his mouth, "Hello Jeffrey," He briefly met Dean's gaze as he stood in front of him. "Dean Winchester, as I live and breathe." The Demon said with a smirk. His eyes went back to normal and he went over to Jeffrey.

Dean eyebrows rose when the demon paid him no more mind and instead went to embrace Jeffrey. Hell, even Jeffrey seemed surprised at that. Dean was even more surprised when they began dancing around.

"What are you doing with this half dead piece of crap?" Jeffrey asked as he tried to keep up. "Come into me."

Dean blinked twice, thinking that perhaps Jeffrey had taken more blood than he first thought and this was some sort of hallucination. This had never happened before. What the hell?

"We had a very special time together, didn't we Jeffrey? It warms my heart to see that you haven't forgotten what I taught you." The demon actually sounded proud. He stopped dancing and took a step back as if to admire an art work, grabbing him by the jacket. "You built on it _and_ captured a Winchester. You Jeffrey… my pupil."

Jeffrey was smiling. "I don't want to be your pupil. I want to be yours." That sounded oddly dirty to Dean. Augh, just looking at those two Dean _felt_ dirty.

The demon shook his head and took a small step back. "But I'm done with you." Was it just Dean or this did sound like the beginning of a bad break up? Jeffrey's face actually fell at that. "My work is finished. You can do everything now, all on your beautiful own."

"No,"

"No?" Jeffrey shook his head and the demon backhanded him across the face with enough force to knock him backwards. The demon crouched next to him and talked almost sweetly. "We don't do 'no' remember?"

All of it was really charming and all, but Dean wanted to get out of there ASAP. This whole time he'd been trying to get free from the bindings and so when the chair made a squeaky noise as Dean moved frantically, the demon must have heard him.

The demon stood and took a few steps towards Dean, arms spread out in a dramatic flair. "Keep sawing away at your ropes, Penelope Pitstop. We can dance standing up if you want?"

_As if_, Dean thought disdainfully. "Sorry, already lost a shoe, Prince Charming." Since the demon was looking at him Dean had to stop working on the bindings but tried to keep him talking. Just a little more. Sam had to be close and he prayed to God that his little brother didn't bring Emma along. "So, this is what you do—find postal workers, make 'em go postal?"

"A talent scout, that's all. Looking for the next generation of superstars before they get to hell." Jeffrey groaned on the floor and the demon turned back to him. "Like Jeffrey here. He had all the raw material just bubbling in there. All I had to do was loosen the lid on his jar. Show him a little practical know-how."

Dean almost had it, almost. He needed a little more time. "What about the kid?"

The demon stood up and looked down at his meatsuit, wandering around the place. "This one? I don't think." He almost sounded regretful, the bastard. "Not much to work with. No natural gift. I'll probably burn this meat off on my way to Vegas." Just as he turned, the demon spotted Sam at the same time Dean did. Unfortunately, the demon caught the iron pipe Sam was about to hit him with and began beating the crap out of Sam.

Dean still needed more time and Sam was in trouble. Desperate, the only thing that Dean managed was rub his wrists raw and blood trickled down his arm. Just as he was panicking, someone cut the ties loose and Dean quickly hauled himself up, ready to fight. But it was Emma.

"Emma, what in the hell are you doing here?" He growled as he grabbed her by the arm and, to his surprise, brought her against his body in an embrace. "You shouldn't be here." Deep inside, he was relieved to see that she was alright, though, even though she'd never been in danger.

Emma let out a relieved sigh as she hugged him tight before hastily pulling away with a scowl. For a moment, Dean thought that he'd overstepped his boundaries but she didn't seem mad at him, just… well, relieved and sort of embarrassed. "Yeah, well, let's just skip the part where you chastise me and go to the part where I say that I'm glad you're fine." She turned to where Sam already had the demon under a Devil's Trap. "Now, let's see that the demon goes back to hell before I maim him." She walked away and Dean trailed behind her chuckling.

"You let go of my son!" Nora was saying when they joined the others and Dean took a stand next to his daughter, silently watching the trapped demon fume.

The demon laughed, but anger laced his words. "Where do you keep coming from?"

Jeffrey came out of nowhere holding a knife walking towards the demon. Tired of that scumbag, Dean took out a gun from the back of Sam's pants and was about to shoot it when Emma got ahead of him and shot him herself three times. Emma seemed pleased to see the demon growl and try to escape only to be held back by the Devil's Trap as Jeffrey fell to the floor.

Dean lowered his gun and patted Emma's back, proud of her for reacting so quickly. She turned to him and smiled a little.

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus." Nora's voice was loud and confident as she chanted the exorcism.

Once again, the demon laughed, even as he was being exorcized. "He'll be back you know? Back in Black."

Appalled, Dean said, "Go to hell."

Finally, the exorcism was over and black smoke came out of the demon's mouth. Nora's son, now back to normal, fell backwards to the floor and Nora went over to support him.

Emma turned to Dean and Sam, holding out the gun to Dean. "I'd really like to stay for the beautiful reunion, but I'm tired." Dean grabbed the gun from her, putting it in the back of his jeans and returning his gun to Sam. "How about we leave her to deal with her own mess?"

Dean didn't even ask. He could already guess, so he just nodded. It had been a long day and he was dying for some shut eye. And perhaps some whiskey. He found his flask in his jacket's pocket and took a long drink, letting out a breath as the liquid burned down his throat.

/

Emma opened the door to the motel and sighed, relieved to be back where she could take a nap. It was already morning but Emma hadn't slept anything in twenty four hours, she was almost dead on her feet.

As expected, Dean just threw himself face down on his bed with a pleased groan.

"Sam," Emma began. "are you going to actually go to sleep?" He looked awake and alert just sitting there on his bed, pensive.

When he shook his head and scooted over more to the corner, she flopped down on the other side of the bed with a sigh much like Dean and closed her eyes. Instead of going back to thinking quietly, Sam started a one sided conversation with Dean. "So, Jeffrey was just pretending to be the victim." he told Dean. "Way back in the farmhouse during the exorcism… he was just acting."

From the other bed Dean actually replied. "He was a psychopath, Sam." His voice was groggy and slurry with sleep, he was probably fighting real hard to stay awake. "That's what they do all the time, is act. Act like they're normal, act like they're not balls-to-the-wall crazy."

Emma wanted to make a comment about how that wasn't it, that, according to Law & Order they were so much more than that, but she could barely keep herself awake. As it was, their voices were growing fainter. The last thing she heard was Dean muttering something that sounded like, "Screw consciousness—that's what I say." And she was out like a light.


End file.
